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Abrams strikes incredible truth in clarifying again what we have been studying all quarter:  our experience as a direct result of our embodied condition, not as a quantifiable, predictable pattern.  I particularly enjoy his phrase “the body is a creative, shape-shifting reality.”  Because the body is constantly either in a cycle of growth or death, decay into birth, it is impossible to separate the body from everything around it.

                I particularly connected to the idea of the ecology of magic in the first chapter.  Abram’s staunch recognition of the fact that other entities share the same perceptive powers as us is incredibly eye opening.  Shortly after reading that, I was walking home and thinking of a story I want to write.  In the story, the main character would be a rabbit (all the characters would be animal archetypes).  I walked head down, ipod headphones in my ears, and looking at the concrete.  As I stepped up the path to my house I looked up and saw a rabbit, sitting to the right of my front stoop.  He didn’t run as I came closer, and instead looked me in the eye as he (or she) ate some leaves.

                Similarly, the other day I was working on rehearsing a scene in a room overlooking the olentangy.  Suddenly, someone pointed out the window and said “what is going on!?”.  Geese were lining up in rows on the banks of the river.  They just stood there, waiting.  Finally, on some unseen signal, they all started filing into the water.  I was immediately reminded of the Abrams introduction, thinking about the intense similarity to human experience, and yet the strange otherness reflected in those geese.

                This quarter has literally changed my life.  I understand, as a result of our dialogue on embodiment and our yoga practice together , myself and my surroundings in a new, more honest way.  Its an incredible skill I will always take with me.  Thanks for everything Michael, have a wonderful summer.

Hi Michael-

Last class I had some issues with headaches.  I probably didn’t drink enough water, get enough sleep, etc.  This may be a silly question, but do you ever find yourself in that position?  What do you do when that happens?  Other than that, I feel pretty good about my practice.  I have had some breakthroughs about being “in the moment” lately.

Have you heard of a musician/laptop artist named Flying Lotus?  I think you’d really like him.  This is probably the most meditate-able song of his:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0acXbjOp6e4

My practice feels pretty good in general right now (excluding wednesday’s class). Not a whole lot to speak about.

Zak

It is certainly interesting to learn more about the individual chakras.  Michael, do you percieve the chakras as spiritual or emotional centers with those qualities described in the bowditch article?  Do you personally feel those qualities in them when you meditate on them?  Or do you see them more as body centers, places where the energy “may” take on those qualities?  I experience little sensation in the chakra at the base of the spine.  The next one up I feel, but if often feels as though there is not a lot of energy pooling there, and that I have to consciously direct my energy to it.  I experience most of my sensation in the heart chakra and the solar plexus chakra, followed by the throat.  Do you think it is accurate for me to interpret these sensations as a strong connection between myself and the qualities associated with those chakras, and that perhaps I don’t have as strong of a connection with the others?  If so, why do you think an unevenly distributed connection between the chakras occurs?

Tantric philosophy seems to say that nothing is inherently ‘bad’.  But in working with the chakras, the written materials state that we practice working with them to clear any obstructions to their ease and function.  Do you think this is a result of society, then?  The whole nature vs. nurture issue?

Long, abstract intellectual post.  Not much about my physicality today, I’ve just been wondering about these ideas and wondered if you would provide some illumination.

Thanks!

Zak

Michael-

I found the  audio meditation very strange at first.  There is an element of what we do in class that is interesting and almost magical because it is happening in the moment.  When I first started listening to the chakra meditation, I was struck by how impersonal it seemed because I knew the speaker was not in the room, speaking to me, but instead recording themselves so their voice could be endlessly repeated.  However, as the meditation continued I got lost in the sounds of the singing bowl(s) and experienced a very relaxed and easy meditation.  Ultimately, I guess I have mixed feelings about it, but it has introduced some new concepts to my meditation that are just now kicking around the back of my head.  So perhaps it was successful!

A co-worker of mine is really interested in yoga and he showed me some artwork today by an artist named Alex Grey. Have you heard of him?  He’s very anatomical/spiritual in his illustrations, which frequently involve depictions of the chakras and related concepts along with bone and muscle structures.

Zak

Hi Michael-

I’ve been really accessing the images of a vertical channel moving up the spine.  I can vividly feel it activating when I am “present” in the moment, whether I’m in our class together or, (and this is very exciting for me) when I am present in rehearsal for the play.

However, while I have been feeling the reality of the vertical channel, and the prana moving along it, I am having trouble with understanding the individual chakras.  I feel sensations in them at times, but I wonder if they are more self generated than natural responses.  How do you go about understanding and interpreting the sensations of your chakras?

How exactly are the muscular locks supposed to respond to the chakras?

Zak

Michael-

I think  I understand the last section better than the first.  To me, the first seems to value inaction:

But the man who delights in the Self,
who feels pure contentment and finds
perfect peace in the Self—
for him, there is no need to act.

While I think the message trying to be conveyed is instead: grab ahold tightly when you need to, let go lightly when you need to.  Which I can totally understand.  There are some things in life that you grab ahold of and never let go, and some that younever want to deal with.  But grace comes from being able to do what is necessary, not just what is pleasant.  It is similar to theatre: when an actor is keenly aware of the fact that he/she is acting, they become unnatural and strange onstage.  Whereas when an actor forgets themselves onstage, they become immersed in the moment and delight in the self of the character, resonating with that character’s impulses and emotions.

Self-possessed, resolute, act
without any thought of results,
open to success or failure.

It seems that success can be as mentally detrimental as failure.  Success makes you feel failure when you don’t achieve the same success again.

Zak

Hi Michael-

I’m sorry I was unable to make it to class on wednesday.  I found out last minute that my dad needed a ride to and from an eye doctor’s appointment.  However, I thoroughly enjoyed our class on monday.  I felt a greater understanding physically of the different postures, especially downward facing dog.  I’m not quite sure about utinasina (it feels more released than active), but I still feel improvement.  I think I have actually come to embrace the idea of an embodied philosophy.  It is actually quite similar to many philosophies I already accepted, and even unites a few of them in interesting ways.

Also, the embodied philosophy applies really well to acting.  When my acting is the best, my body shakes and resonates and I can feel it all the way from my toes to the tips of my fingers to my nose.

What I found particularly interesting about our extended meditation session was that, after a certain point, I woke up with a start, not remembering where I was or what I was doing.  I only felt that I was late for something.  I think this is pretty telling of how we live in our society today- we can’t sleep freely because we are always late for something.  My friend Carolina related a similar experience from the same meditation.  Crazy!

Do you meditate daily, outside of class?  How do you go about meditating?  Where?  How long?  I’m curious.  Do you usually practice postures beforehand?  Do you sometimes meditate without the postures?

Zak

Michael-

This was a very intense prompt.  I have some trouble reconciling the idea of an embodied spirituality with these very strongly theistic ideas of krishna.  I’m amazed that the two are so closely linked.  Yoga, in my limited experience, seems to be all about personal development and clarity achieved through the sensations of the body.  Whereas the poetry you posted implies a universal truth or standard.  When Krishna says

Others, on the path of knowledge,

Know me as the many, the One;

Behind the faces of a million gods

They can see my face.

How do modern practitioners of Yoga reconcile this problem?  I would guess that the more “mind over body” Yoga easily is able to solve this problem, but tantric philosophy in particular must have some philosophical problems as a result of their embodied philosophies.

I really enjoy the stanza that goes:

I am the fragrance in the earth,

The manliness in men, the brilliance

in the fire, the life in the living,

and the abstinence in the ascetics.

This stanza appeals to me personally because it deeply reminds me of my favorite poet, Whitman.  Actually, come to think of it, Whitman had a sense of the embodied philosophy as well.  Many of his poems specifically reference the strength of people’s bodies, even the old and the young, and he celebrates virility and free love.  I am coming more and more to identify myself with an embodied philosophical perspective.

Michael-

I’ve been noticing that, outside of yoga, I have a burning sensation in my shoulder.  It occurs during play rehearsal, or sometimes in class.  It is similar to the feeling when someone breaks up a knot in your back.  It only happens in my right shoulder underneath the shoulder blade.  Do you know what this is/what it comes from?

On a more related note, last class I felt a definite sense of grace, and the beauty of my personal practice!  It was an incredible experience.  Since then, I’ve been able to center myself better, and understand myself in reflection on the feeling of my body.  I feel much taller, which could be an example of organic energy: my body naturally lengthening and relaxing.  Additionally, last class I was better able to balance and attempt doing warrior 3 with my arms in the air instead of on the ground.

Zak

The fire of consciousness.  This metaphor strikes me as unusual.  In my mind, the stereotype of yoga is that it is calm, serene and passionless.  I like the idea that however calm yoga may seem, there is always a fire, or at least embers.

I also definitely agree with the idea in terms of consciousness and thought.  Thinking always requires fuel, like fire, the more fuel you give your consciousness, the brighter it burns.  Lately, I have really connected with the idea of an embodied philosophy.  I can feel the ‘fire’ burning brighter when I acknowledge and recognize my own body.  In my acting work, I have noticed that I can often feel emotionally closed.  By physically opening my body, even just opening my hands, I feel a deeper emotional resonance within myself.  The emotional resonance feels like a warmth running through my lungs and down into my stomach and into my fingers.  I would describe this feeling as the ‘fire of consciousness’.

This concept also explains why we put so much emphasis on muscular energy in our yoga practice.  By activating as much of the body as possible, we activate as much of the mind as possible.

Awesome prompt, Michael.  Very thought provoking.