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Asana practice can become a doorway into both mind and body. By understanding the physical body- it's natural alignment, various functions, signals and signs - we empower ourselves by unwrapping the confusion that comes from lack of practical information. When the mind is informed, it can lead the body with skill and intelligence. When the mind is still, it can truly listen to what the body needs to say.
Yoga asanas invite freedom and space, especially when we know how to do them. The more we open the body, the better it feels and the better it functions. With space comes insight and the opportunity to bring the mind into the deeper nooks and cranies inside, creating a more conscious body; a home for the mind that it can truly occupy fully and with more delight.
Energy is explored and experienced through the asanas and meditation practice. Again, by stilling the mind our inner eyes and ears perk up, and sensations previously unfelt become known or unleashed. The inner energetic body is just as real as the outer body that we can see and touch - but in our Western society, who's actually brought up to know it?
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For those who experience it, it's a welcome relief to know that there are thousands of years of tradition charting the way to understanding something unseen. Vajra Yoga primarily uses information coming out of the Tibetan Tantric tradition.
The mind is what we always loop back to. It guides the body, lives in the body, expresses itself through many vehicles not the least of all the physical body. The mind flows throughout the body, but primarily through a central channel, that Vajra Yoga calls the wisdom stream. By experiencing the channel or stream, we begin to see where energetically we are blocked or congested.
These blocks along or within the channel/stream don't simply stay contained there, they ripple outwards and affect the physical body. The manifestation of this can come in the form of tightness, stiffness, pain and sometimes illness. The source needs to be addressed before it will be relieved, that's where the mind comes back in.
Ever wonder why there's a place in your body that's been tight for years no matter how many yoga classes you've taken? We look at the source, not just the symptom and this has the power to create freedom, true health and increased consciousness. |
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The heart also plays an enormous role in Vajra Yoga's inquiry. Seeing things as they are requires an open mind and open heart. Loving kindness and compassion begins at home, with ourselves, not just for someone else. The capacity to love, and be compassionate is a natural outgrowth of caring for ourselves. There are tools to learn and experience this as again, most of us weren't brought up with this type of training. Vajra Yoga utilizes several traditions of Buddhist philosophy and tools for this important inquiry and experience.
The willingness to be curious and look within isn't for all of us at all times in our lives, but the opportunity is here when it is time. Vajra Yoga isn't tailored to those who want only the physical benefits of a Hatha Yoga practice (although that's an excellent benefit of it), but to those who would like to unravel for themselves the wonderful experience of human existence. Being clear, fully alive and compassionate - that is our greatest wish for everyone.
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