Yoga Sadhana and the Expansion of Consciousness

Explorers of all kinds fascinate me, especially explorers of consciousness.

I am constantly studying, reading, listening, gathering more tools, adding to my understanding and plumbing the mystery of being human.

In his book LSD and the Mind of the Universe, Christopher Bache offers this gem:

The core of the therapeutic protocol is to powerfully amplify your unconscious, allow its patterns to emerge in your awareness, and surrender completely to whatever presents itself in your experience.

Through the unrestricted engagement of your inner experience, the patterns will build in intensity until they come to a critical threshold. The same patterns will keep showing up in a variety of forms until a climax of expression is reached, some inner gestalt is consciously realized, or some reservoir of pain drained, and then they will spontaneously resolve themselves.

The energy trapped in these patterns is released, and the psyche is then free to flow into more expansive states of awareness for the remainder of the session. If this process is repeated many times, deeper patterns begin to emerge. However inscrutable these patterns may appear at the time, eventually they too can be dissolved by undefended engagement, and once they are, new worlds of experience will continue to open.

This description beautifully articulates the process of deep yogic sadhana.

Bache used LSD to “amplify the unconscious.” There is a far subtler, innate agent, inborn within every human being, which is destined to provide you with the impetus to expand your consciousness. It is prana, your own life energy.

You might be able to imagine how a person could have the types of experiences Bache describes under the influence of a drug, but most people could not fathom how this could be achieved without dramatic chemical intervention. Not only is this possible through the cultivation and awakening of prana, but the process is documented in multiple lineages of practice dating back thousands of years. An example of a person who reached this level of sadhana is my Teacher’s Teacher, Swami Kripalvanandji.

Prana functions subconsciously to sustain life. When fused with consciousness through yogic practices, it accelerates to evolutionary levels and becomes the catalyst for catharsis, release, and transformation. When there is enough energy in the system, obstructions are spontaneously brought forth to be resolved. The laws of energy determine the self-resolving dynamics of unconscious patterns. Healing—the return to wholeness—is the essence of expanding consciousness.

The role and power of prana in the process of yoga, and how to utilize prana to expand consciousness systematically, are secrets not widely known even among yoga practitioners. This was the essence of Gurudev’s discovery in the 1970 awakening experience that totally transformed his consciousness. (You can read about this in his book). The key to unlocking the power of prana is built into the Integrative Amrit Method. All practices in I AM Yoga, Yoga Nidra, and Yoga Therapy / Body Psychology are designed to re-establish our connection with prana.

Although I was gifted with a complete system by my Teachers, a methodology that can take us to the furthest reaches of mystical experience and beyond, most of the practices I teach are providing basic restoration and foundational preparations, because that is what we need.

As you learn how to dismantle your reactivity to what arises in the moment, yoga begins to rebalance your nervous system and simultaneously prepares you for the experience of encountering more deeply embedded and intense unconscious patterns. In this way yoga has immediate and multifaceted benefits: physical, physiological, emotional, mental, behavioral, relational, and spiritual. The discipline of yoga is the discipline of learning “unrestricted and undefended engagement” of both your inner and outer experience, and this is the key to health as well as enlightenment.

As a student and practitioner of yoga at any level, it is important to know that the purpose, power, and potential of yoga is nothing less than full Self realization and total liberation from self-caused suffering. If you don’t know where you are going, how will you ever arrive?

The first step is to begin to recognize who you are (the I AM, the consciousness) as distinct from who you think you are (the mind-made sense of separate self). Yoga provides dependable experiments to verify experientially and progressively deepen your knowing of Self as I AM.

The next step is to gather and amplify the life energy within your bodymind system. It is rare to find individuals who can tolerate elevated energy levels and maintain steadiness of mind. Stress, excessive nervous system stimulation, and toxicity are factors that pose challenges to cultivating and sustaining energy levels sufficient to ignite the deeper process of accelerated growth. Prana is the fuel for expansion of consciousness. If energy is constantly engaged with external stimuli and consumed by conflict-creating thoughts, we cannot reach a baseline threshold of power needed to move from survival-level consciousness toward higher creative and evolutionary functions. Moreover, every living being on Earth is immersed in increasing levels of environmental toxicity. We have yet to fully understand the real impact of this on our evolution (let alone our survival).

Luckily for us, we cannot avoid the process of consciousness expansion, no matter how unconscious or distracted we may become. Life is one energy. Energy moves in a self-balancing process, where degeneration can be seen as a precursor to evolutionary reorganization.

Transformation happens the moment sufficient energy and consciousness are available, and to the exact extent they are available. So even when you are working at the most basic levels, you are evolving. You are preparing the ground from which you will eventually leap.

Life itself appears to be bringing us to a critical threshold that is amplifying our collective unconsciousness. This may ignite transformation in ways we cannot predict.

The seeds of awakening are dormant within you. What will you do to nurture those seeds?

PranaBeing blog: Woah, Dude!

We live in a fractal universe. This means that everything is encased within everything. The intelligence within a piece of DNA is reflected in the cell, and again in the tissue, in the organ, in the system, in the organism…and so on, out into the galaxy and beyond.

Ancient yogis explained it like this:

Yatha pinde tatha brahmande, yatha brahmande tatha pinde. - Yajurveda

As in the microcosm; so is the macrocosm; as is the macrocosm, so is the microcosm.

Nearly every aspect of our existence is unfathomably deep. We can “drill down” into something as simple as the breath and enter worlds of complexity and revelation.

We can step into a fresh start at the dawning of day…and just as readily claim a fresh start in each new moment, if we but know how to scale our attention.

Fractals are dynamics allowing for infinite complexity, displaying the splendid creativity of Life. My Teacher once told me, “If you want to know Nature, look within your own body.”

The same truth applies: if you want to know your Self, immerse in the experience of Nature.

Likewise, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Why is this necessary?

Because, you are the world. When I say, “Wake up to who you truly are” I am inviting you to embark upon a fractal journey of discovery.

One place to begin this journey is by considering that you—every last fleck of DNA, every thought, emotion, every action you have taken and will ever take—ripples out into the whole. You are a unique and irreplaceable part of All That Is.

As a human being, equipped with the potential to be self-aware, you are literally at the center of the known universe, in this moment, as you are experiencing it.

If everything I have just written about is a fool’s fantasy (which is somewhat likely, knowing me) - it may or may not change your life too much.

On the other hand, what if this is true?

Please start at the top of this post and read it again, as if every statement were speaking directly to you, about you.

Do you want to know who you are?

If so, what is your next step?

Being Right

We emphasize fact-finding and pride ourselves on being right. We want to eradicate what is wrong. We are so annoyed when people with views totally opposed to our own share the same zeal for rightness as we do—and they have their own arsenal of facts to prove it!

We hustle to align ourselves with the right people/decisions as we distance ourselves from the wrong ones. And when we are made to look wrong or feel wrong, we despair.

We swim in a sea of human-generated facts and information that grows exponentially by the moment. We frantically scramble to gather more facts—to “educate” ourselves—as if to build an unequivocal shelter. Yet at any time, what was right can become wrong and our house of cards comes tumbling down. We become alienated and confused. We forget that all this is mind-made stuff.

The truth remains simple, timeless, and unfathomable.

So far as human history can tell, right never vanquishes wrong; they co-exist, bound together like day to night.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other” doesn't make any sense. - Jalaluddin Rumi

Consider that there is a way to BE right.

Consider that there is a part of you that is rooted in deep knowing of what is right, good, and true. Hint: it is not competing with the many other voices clamoring for attention. This is a vast, quiet presence. Like an ancient, giant tree, this part represents steady wisdom. It does not cower; it has no need to defend itself, justify, or prove. It is connected to truth just as the tree is connected through mycelium to the whole forest and beyond. It knows what is right by feel.

Instead of looking outward to make the determination, instead of contrasting right against wrong in search of clarity, the access to this way of being is through tapping into your roots, listening… going deeper…tapping in…listening…refining…

How do we tap in?

Start by learning how to turn your attention inward and relax. When we reconnect with ourselves, we find the path toward freedom. If you want to explore this, visit PranaBeing on InsightTimer (it’s free) and start practicing.

Would you rather be happy or would you rather be right?

Yes.

The Great River

The goal of Ayurveda is to support human beings in living a healthy, peaceful, harmonious, and long life. Ayurveda mentions the normal human life span at more than 100 years. Longevity is as much about quality as length of life.

The image used to help us understand longevity is that of a river.

The river begins high in the mountains, fed by snows and springs. As it descends, it gathers water and gains speed…trickling, gurgling, rushing… eventually roaring. Where the banks are narrow and the bed is shallow, the water forms a torrent, tumbling toward its inexorable destiny, at last discharging into an even larger river.

These Great Mothers, the lifelines of the Earth, guide all the smaller rivers to their ultimate merger in the sea. Roiling whitewater is thrilling to behold. Yet the silent power of a Great River is awe-inspiring. The banks are wide; the bed carved deep. An unfathomable amount of water is moving in that channel, sliding almost soundlessly. I experienced this on the banks of the Columbia. Camping near Castledale, British Columbia, I was enthralled by her palpable presence: the embodiment of gravity in motion, a stunning magnitude of energy. I’ve experienced several other powerful rivers, but the sheer volume and depth of the Columbia at this place was mesmerizing. I’ve never seen so much water, moving so quickly and silently.

Ayurveda teaches that longevity is like this Great River.

At the beginning, the river’s inputs are greater than the output. As it grows into a dynamic stream, smashing against narrow banks, its output is greater than input. When the river becomes a Great River, its capacity to receive is balanced by the energy it flows out, and this balance creates exponentially more power and strength.

True, lasting health and longevity have to do with balancing our inputs and outputs and expanding our capacity to allow life to flow through us.

As a highly trained over-achiever, I’ve found this concept to be challenging to consider. Yet I have lived long enough now to see the tendency toward a raging torrent in myself, and to understand the consequences of time spent where outputs > inputs.

My opinion is that we stand to benefit tremendously by considering a paradigm that empowers us to become conscious of the quality and balance of both inputs and outputs. I’d love to see this replace the obsolete norm our world is suffering from, where inputs are largely ignored, outputs are denied and justified, disease is expected—written off as “normal aging”—and we continue to look outside ourselves for a solution.

Let’s come back to the deeper wisdom throbbing in our blood and all the sacred waters of our body: the song of the Great River and her dance of dynamic balance.

Show up

The Rocky Mountain Loop from space: the first time I saw our proposed route on satellite, I knew we had to try to ride it.

This summer I spent 113 days riding a bicycle around the Rocky Mountains. And I do mean around. You can check out my Facebook feed to read about the journey. I spent the first five months of the year helping my mom through a severe health crisis.

Sometimes we have a choice as to whether to show up, and sometimes we don’t.

Sometimes we’re just in it.

The challenge we are facing might be the obvious result of our own choice—as in my case with the bike adventure—or it could be a culmination of unknown variables resulting in a dire and non-negotiable situation, as with my mom.

Some things I learned over the last few months:

• The choice in any given moment is to show up or give up.

• Even if we give up, the experience at hand will still play out (i.e. have its way with us). This means giving up does not guarantee escape.

• We don’t have to be perfect, happy, have our shit together, or be superlative in any way in order to show up.

• When we choose to show up, something happens. Life responds, inside and outside.

• We can give in and show up. Surrender is not the same as giving up. Sometimes giving in is the only way we can show up.

Showing up is the opposite of avoidance. With practice, tools, and support, showing up can teach us how to stop disassociating in the face of things that scare us. As we explore in the practice of asana (postures), showing up is coming to your edge. Breathing there. Not backing away; not pushing.

The breakthrough can only happen if you show up.

In my experience, when we show up, the breakthrough will happen. It’s only a matter of time.