Originating from the teachings of the Buddha, the form of
yoga that I teach and call Nadi Prana is mainly about releasing our clinging to
the same old habits and patterns that make us suffer. It cannot be otherwise, as the Buddha's way of teaching was to point out ways that help us to eradicate the causes of suffering from
our own mindstream. Inner imbalances and disharmony have to be dealt with first.
Why? Because our ego-centered and fixated concepts and patterns are the root of our existential predicaments. They make us suffer mostly emotionally and mentally at first; later the same trends manifest physically. All physical problems start as mental/emotional problems before they turn into an outright disease - or in another manifestation: social injustice and the rape of the planet. It all starts at home, here with each and everyone of us. We better understand who we are, what what we are doing and what's the purpose of it, before doing anything else.
Why? Because our ego-centered and fixated concepts and patterns are the root of our existential predicaments. They make us suffer mostly emotionally and mentally at first; later the same trends manifest physically. All physical problems start as mental/emotional problems before they turn into an outright disease - or in another manifestation: social injustice and the rape of the planet. It all starts at home, here with each and everyone of us. We better understand who we are, what what we are doing and what's the purpose of it, before doing anything else.
Therefore, in this yoga, we are not trying to achieve the
ideal posture that plays into and/or reinforces our idealized self-image, the way we would like others to see us. Rather, we use postures only for the purpose
that they may reflect back for us to see what is happening in our bodies and
minds, moment-to-moment With their help, we can observe ourselves in
slow motion so to speak. As a
result, feeling deeply what is passing through us, we become slowly and gradually very natural and gain the kind of inborn self-confidence that doesn't deflate when ego is deflated. Our suffering over emotions, concepts
and ideas decreases. Although this process takes time and we will need some patience.
In the words of Tarthang Tulku, it works something like this,
“Breathing we allow our awareness of the
sensation to expand, noting how it ripples outward, shifting its tone over
time. Fierce anger rises, peaks,
and settles down. Amusement may
come up suddenly in its wake, leaving a trail of shining bubbles as it flows
through us. It is all subject to
change. It is gradually
changing. As we allow ourselves to
feel the great breadth and depth of our sensations, they lose their
discreteness, merging with one another at their outer edges. The stormy weather ebbs away. Leaving
us in a quiet sea.”
From this we can deduct that the whole point in practicing
is not to continue with making us suffer over our own concepts, ideas, ad
emotions – and not making others suffer either.
But we can explain the result of such practice even more
simply, more in terms of our actual palpable, physical experience.
In these terms, the benefits of Buddhist yoga help us set in
motion and enjoy a feedback loop of open-ended and natural, uncontrived
positivity. It starts out with:
Relaxing body and mind. That’s what we do in the physical exercise. Even when they
are a little strenuous we focus on the relaxation that follows.
- Through relaxation we become more aware
- Through becoming more aware we awaken to our direct sensory experiences
- Through awakening the senses we start enjoying every moment
- Through such enjoyment we start nurturing our whole being
- Through nurturing our whole being we are becoming grounded in our own reality
- Through becoming grounded and real we feel embodied in all aspects of our lives
- Feeling thus fully embodied makes us even more relaxed, while likewise deepening our responsiveness
- Deeper relaxation and responsiveness deepen awareness even further
- Such deeper awareness empowers our sensory experiences to become even more fine-tuned, subtle and even continuously self-transforming.
And so forth
Nadi Prana is not a head oriented practice. Over time you learn how to let the
entire unbroken bodymind guide you, not just the brain, let alone your ideas of
‘how things are supposed to be and behave’. Buddhist yoga has no issue or problem with the body and the
senses. It doesn’t look down on
them. It actually cherishes the
body in a non-ego fixated way – as an ever-flowing continuum.
Unlike many other forms of yoga, it does not preach the
virtues of the ordinary shortsighted kind of spirituality of forced
renunciation that puts ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’ on a pedestal, while denigrating the
allegedly ‘lowly’ body. NadiPrana
doesn’t just make use of the body; rather it helps us appreciate its richness
of so-far undiscovered possibilities.
Being with the body, moving it (mostly) slowly (but
sometimes also fast) and feeling the feelings that such movement and attention
produces, in and of itself will over time dissolve all preconceived limited
ideas and notions that we have.
When the body feels more alive, it becomes less of a conceptual prison
but a matrix through which the freedom of spirit can be naturally expressed.
Through the yoga of the Buddha, the open-ended feedback loop
of direct experience will make us physically and emotionally much more flexible.
© Matthias Dehne/Choyin Dorje 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment