What is rest?

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(Sharing from a newsletter from Ayurprana)

The beauty of Ayurveda is that it allows for the concept of rest and resting to be different for each person, with each of us living in our very particular constitutionalparadigms, but rest can also look different even moment to moment for each individual. By allowing our rest to be framed differently for each of us day to day, season to season. 

What if we moved beyond the need to just “crash” due to the intensity of our day-to-day living, and rather sought to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature, seasons, and the world around us? Proper sleep, proper diet, proper activity all yield natural periods of rest within our day-to-day – allowing us to rethink how we spend our time, and especially how we frame periods of rest. When we spend time replenishing our being, these actions can permeate the many layers of our bodies, minds, and consciousness. 

As we restart our Fall sittings, we ask you to take a moment to be present with yourself, and reflect on the idea of what rest is needed in the moment. What does it take to replenish all the levels, layers, facets, and aspects of yourself?  Remembering in this process that there is no judgment, no right or wrong when it comes to personal rest. You’re perfection, beauty, and wonderment incarnate and in you is a bright glimmer of the divine; and when we are present and balanced we shine this divinity into the world!

Look at what is with all your mind,

with all your heart

and all your gut.

Then your grief, your attachment,

your longing or your discontent

will burst into pure bliss.

This is your true nature.

This life is most unique.

Don’t waste it on trifles.

Every moment, live it completely.

Everything is here.

The entire Universe is throbbing

in your heart.

The entire existence is breathing

in your lungs.

No religion can give you that.

No guru can give you that.

Do you have the gut, the courage

to be with what is?

~ By Vasant Lad

Taken from Vasant Lad’s book of poetry Strands of Eternity

Francis Lucille on the Silent Transmission

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The teaching is in the silent transmission.

Francis Lucille

Developing a sequence of 8 Breathworks: Daily Pranayama: 2nd in the sequence: Kapalabhati follows Bhastrika

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“Shining Skull Breath” Kapalabhati invigorates the brain and awakens the dormant centres which are responsible for subtle perception.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika


Definition: Kapalabhati is the “skull shining” breath -a dynamic and energizing purification breath that helps clear and move out stagnant energy and is life promoting. Kapala means “head”, bhati means “shining”.

  • Tones the digestive organs, thereby improving agni (digestive fire) and appetite.
  • Keeps forehead cool. Brings alertness, light and consciousness to the body.
  • Removes sensory distractions from the mind.
  • Cleanses the blood.
  • Clears the pranic channels without creating heat. Not incredibly drying and heating (like Bhastrika).
  • Supports immunity (any time the abdomen is engaged, the immune system is supported). Energizes the body and brain.
  • Massages the hear therefore has a cardiovascular benefit equal to running without the impact stress on the joints.

Instructions: This practice is best done on an empty stomach.
You will feel like you are throwing/pushing air out from the belly similar to the action of coughing.

  1. Begin from a comfortable seated position to align spine over the pelvis.
  2. During this practice, the focus is on the exhalation; the inhalation happens naturally, without effort.
  3. Expel and push the breath out through the nose by forcefully contracting the abdominal muscles in
    and up – pushing the diaphragm into the lungs to expel the air out.
  4. Allow the inhalation to fill the lungs naturally, without effort. The inhalation is spontaneous and
    involves no effort while the exhalation is strong and active.
  5. After your round is complete. Sit comfortably and breathe.

Progression: Start with two rounds progressing to two rounds. Slowly increase 10 repetitions per week. Start at 50/50 and can work up to 500/500. This will take quite a few months to accomplish.

Indications:

  • Low immunity,
  • inability to focus,
  • poor digestion,
  • poor circulation,
  • thyroid conditions,
  • cardiovascular conditions which involve high cholesterol, diabetes (helps pancreas release insulin),
  • stimulates the liver and gallbladder.

Caution: Use caution for the following conditions Detached retina, glaucoma, very high or very low blood
pressure, heart problems, nose bleeds, hernia, ulcers, recent history of epilepsy, recent abdominal surgery.
No pranayama during pregnancy and menses.

Signs and Symptoms of Improper Kapalabhati: Headaches, overactive upward moving circulation (udana vayu), sensations of being overheated

The information on this handout is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. For more information pertaining to your personal needs, please see a qualified medical professional.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika on the Winds of Change

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Autumn is a time when the air element (vayu) is predominant. There is more lightness, dryness and coolness as the “winds of change” blow ever more erratically.

These qualities in nature have a tendency to aggravate the air and ether element within our bodies, thus affecting our nervous systems, and how well we digest food.

Autumn is naturally a time of balancing vata and reducing any symptoms of wind, dryness and erratic behavioiur….the vayu should be skilfully inhaled and exhaled and retained.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Enryu shared on the teachings on the four Foundations of Mindfulness

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Dwell contemplating the body in the body, ardent, clearly comprehending, unified, with concentrated one-pointed mind, in order to know the body as it really is.


Dwell contemplating feeling in feelings… in order to know feelings as they really are.
Dwell contemplating mind in mind… in order to know mind as it really is.


Dwell contemplating dhamma in dhammas… in order to know dhammas as they really are.

Gautama Buddha

Enryu shared on the teachings on the four Foundations of Mindfulness:

Satipatthana is a central practice in the Buddha’s teachings, meaning “the establishment of mindfulness” or “presence of mindfulness”, or alternatively “foundations of mindfulness”, aiding the development of a wholesome state of mind. In Theravada Buddhism, applying mindful attention to four domains, the body, feelings, the mind, and key principles or categories of the Buddha’s teaching (dhammās), is thought to aid the elimination of the five hindrances and the development of the seven aspects of wakefulness.  In the popular understanding, mindfulness has developed into a practice of bare awareness to calm the mind.

Establishing Receptive Attention (shared by Enryu from her many years of Classical Indian Dance Training)

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Enryu took us through a meditation on Nava Rasas moving through the experience of each rasa (a practice in Indian Classical Temple Dance, taken from the Vedic teachings).
Rasa means juice or flavour or essence, a reminder that all flavours can be experienced with the peak potential of all our 5 senses,  without attachment to any one experience. Entering an emotion fully, not getting caught in it and moving on to the next. The double arrowed attention and meditation
Personal and Universal quality
The more we go throuugh the dance the more we realize we don’t own the feeling. Feel the actual expression of the music.
Nine emotions: Feel and drop, FLOW
See if you can bring them up and move on to the next flavour
SHRINGARA: Love, sensuality. Beauty, heightened sense of being alive
BIBATSA: Deep distaste, revulsion, disgust
RAUDRA: Anger, Ill will
ADBHUTA: Awe wonder, Astonishment
BHAYANAKA: The great terror, fear
VIRA:  Confidence Power Strenghth
HASYA Joy Lightness Laughter
KARUNA Compassion Intimacy (includes empathy and sorrow)
SHANTA: Peace

Notice how breathing changes as we enter into different emotions. Images are very different, visualize change in facial expression.
Dance of Parvati – Shakti, in the presence of Shiva, Purusha – Stillness-Our true nature is the canvas that remains unstained, yet the fullness, the rich colours of life express their peak potential – to live each emotion fully AND remember that they are not us. 

Meditating with Sleep and Sleepiness

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Have you found yourself nodding off during meditation?

Dullness or sleepiness are inherent experiences  – experience, acknowledge but not to get caught in. Habit formed in long time members…with awareness, can be shifted – know the obstacles and the 9 stages of medication… from effort to effortless – from intention and attention and concentration to witnessing awareness.

Meditating with Sleep and Sleepiness with Mingyur Rinpoche

Heaviness of body and dullness of mind which can drag one down into inertia and depression is considered one of the five hindrances to Shamatha meditation. Any problem which arises in meditation will be one of these five hindrances, or a combination.

Ajahn Brahmasovo

The Five Hindrances

The Five Hindrances

Venerable Ajahn Brahm says that the Five Hindrances are the only hindrances between us and awakening.

  1. Sense Desire (people or things we like)
  2. Ill will (people or things we don’t like)
  3. Sloth or Torpor (sloth refers to sleepiness and torpor refers to mentaldullness)
  4. Restlessness, anxiety or worry.
  5. Doubt. This word “doubt” is better understood when we read the Buddha’s explanation of “doubt.” He said a traveler lost in a desert with no map and no signposts is filled with doubt, not knowing which way is the way to safety. So doubt is essentially uncertainty, not knowing what to do. 

Hindrances one and two are opposites. We run toward what we like and away from what we don’t. The middle way is to walk down the middle, not chasing sense desires and not running away from everything else.

Hindrances three and four are closely related. Hindrance three arises from too little energy and hindrance four arises from too much. We can’t be so dull that we lose our attentiveness (and mindfulness is attentiveness) but we can’t be racing with hyper mental activity. The middle way is to pay attention but without ego-identification.

That means when a knee starts hurting, instead of thinking “Oh, this is just great. Now my knee is hurting,” instead we note that the knee is hurting, note that it’s just another passing phenomenon, and go back to the practice. We don’t try to ignore or fight the pain, we just accept if with loving kindness as an old friend and return to the practice.

The 9 Stages of Meditation (Shamatha practice)

https://zenawakened.com/the-stages-of-meditation-shamatha/

The nine stages of meditation are like a roadmap as we venture forth into unknown territory.

These nine stages give us a fantastic framework in regards to understanding our progression as we go deeper into our meditative practice.

Below you’ll find the stages of meditation per the Shamatha tradition, mapped out for you.

Check them out and use them to help you explore the amazing world that meditation can open up for you.

They’ve been tested by thousands upon thousands of yogi for the last 2000+ years.

PHASE 1: The Flow of Involuntary Thoughts Are Like A Cascading Waterfall

1) Learning the Instructions & Placement of the Mind (Directed Attention)
2) Continuous Attention
3) Repeated Attention

PHASE 2: The Flow of Thoughts Are Like A River Quickly Flowing Through a Gorge

4) Close Attention

PHASE 3: The Flow of Thoughts Are Like A River Slowly Flowing Through A Valley

6) Pacified Attention
7) Fully Pacified Attention

PHASE 4: The Mind Is Calm Like an Ocean Unmoved by Waves

8) Single-Pointed Attention
In this stage the practitioner can reach high levels of concentration with only a slight effort and without being interrupted even by subtle laxity or excitement during the entire meditation session.

PHASE 5: The Mind Is Perfectly Still

9) Attentional Balance
The meditator now effortlessly reaches absorbed concentration and can maintain it for about four hours without any single interruption.

Full Achievement of Meditation or Shamatha 

What Is Love?

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A very warm welcome back to Enryu and Maria from an intense 10 Day Meditation Retreat at the Great Vow Buddhist Monastery.

Thank you both for sharing highlights of your precious experience, the challenges, the joys.. 

Enryu was co-teaching at the retreat as well. And she focussed on bringing into her sharings, practices she has used in her Indian classical dance training. Weaving and molding various teachings into daily life.

Sitting still for 8 or 9 hours of the day can be very challenging for the body. Watching the mind through the various arisings, learning to relax amidst all that is churning…takes a number of days to settle down. 

This particular retreat had the underlying foundation of deep listening – the use of the sound sense gate to return to the silence and rest that is ever present regardless of chaos and resistance in mind and body.

How loud and deafening the one channel of one’s own mind can be! In sitting still with it all, other channels re-open and one glimpses the possibility of relaxing in one’s true nature. The primary tool – recognizing the energy of sound – the power of one word – the power of sound – the power of silence – the trace of sound coming to rest in silence.

Applying this experience to recognizing the numerous traces we leave behind in our lives – through our actions, words, intentions.

Is there true silence?

Behind the simple instruction for meditation: Place the tongue at the back of the top teeth

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Supriti shared knowledge from the Vedic/yogic teachings- The physiological-spiritual context for mudras (hand postures), bandhas (locks between various body parts) and contact points.
Placing the tongue behind the back of the top teeth results in the opening up of the choroid plexus to release CSF – Soma – the “relaxation” or “bliss molecule” as it is sometimes described, reduces the number of thoughts and one settles in meditation.

Other placements opening up chidakash: Khechari Mudra in the back of the pallette
Also SO’HUM with tongue pushing back of bottom teeth without touching the roof of the mouth-different effects of different pressure points. 

This knowledge is purely education – not a goal setting intention.
Yoga: To let go out outcome, surrender in devotion

Enryu on the Buddha’s essential teaching:
This is not mine
This is not me
This is not myself
What control do we have over anything let alone our thoughts!

John Marshall on Enabling Silence

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“I have the power to enable silence.”

— John Marshall, Lakota Tradition