Originating from the teachings of the Buddha, the form of
yoga that I teach and call Nadi Prana is mainly about releasing, through the body, our clinging to
the same old habits and patterns that make us suffer.
In a Buddhist approach there cannot be any other purpose or goal, as the Buddha restricted himself to pointing out ways that help beings to eradicate the causes of suffering, which are created from grasping certain dynamics produced by our own mindstream, based on past tendencies.
Because we grasp a lot and mostly unknowingly our ego-centered and fixated concepts and patterns, make us at first suffer mostly emotionally and mentally. But further down the line, the same trends manifest as physical illness. All physical problems start as mental/emotional problems before they turn into an outright disease. And all mental/emotional problems have a common ground in the rigidity, the lack of flexibility in our bodies and senses.
In a Buddhist approach there cannot be any other purpose or goal, as the Buddha restricted himself to pointing out ways that help beings to eradicate the causes of suffering, which are created from grasping certain dynamics produced by our own mindstream, based on past tendencies.
Because we grasp a lot and mostly unknowingly our ego-centered and fixated concepts and patterns, make us at first suffer mostly emotionally and mentally. But further down the line, the same trends manifest as physical illness. All physical problems start as mental/emotional problems before they turn into an outright disease. And all mental/emotional problems have a common ground in the rigidity, the lack of flexibility in our bodies and senses.
Since melting down rigidity is the first goal post to pass in NadiPrana, not any
prefabricated idea of perfection, in this yoga, we are not trying to achieve
the ideal posture that plays into and/or reinforces or idealized
self-image. We use postures only
for the purpose that they may reflect back for us to see and feel first hand
what is happening in our bodies and minds. In these postures, we can observe ourselves in slow motion so to speak. As a result, feeling deeply what is
passing through us, we become gradually more and more natural. Our suffering over emotions, concepts and ideas decreases.
Although this takes time and we will need some patience.
In the words of Tarthang Tulku, the process 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.”
“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.”
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 deeper 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 transformative
- And so forth
Nadi Prana is not a head oriented practice. Thinking about it won't help. We have to hand over comman from the head to the bosy, so to speak. In this way over time we learn how to let
the entire unbroken bodymind guide us, not just the brain, let alone our
ideas of ‘how things are supposed to be and function’ according to the mind's dictate of preconceived notions. 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, or as the "wish fulfilling jewel".
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.
© Choyin Dorje 2018
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