Everything about tantra is in a way a speculation. It is not a religion, yet, there are deities, especially Mother Goddess, worshipped as part of some tantric rituals; it is not a cult, yet there are some sect-like rituals and initiations overseen by a “spiritual leader” or shaman. Say the word tantra to an average European or American and I bet that s/he has heard the word in connexion with some sexual rituals.

Is tantra a sect, religion, shamanism or groupies?

Unfortunately all of it and more. Like any other physical and spiritual practice, tantra has been used as an excuse to control others (such as dictators and authoritarian rulers in a less sectarian world) or focus narrowly on giving vent to one’s carnal desires (such as polygamy advocated even by prophet Muhammed) in a “holy” intercourse. Sounds familiar even in other religions or shamanistic rituals, doesn’t it?

Some “tantric” spiritual leaders expect everyone or every female to sleep with them. Even I have received an invite from a “spiritual leader” once upon a time. Did I accept it? Of course not, I’m not stupid. But there are many male “tantric gurus” around telling women what is right and how they should succumb and surrender to men. Others introduce practitioners to strange rituals to connect the microcosm with the macrocosm, usually in the darkness or by the fire (hopefully not in the fire). Like the Christian church used religion as an excuse during crusades, people have also used tantra to be partners in crime.

According to Wikipedia (Sanskrit meanings in brackets): Because it elaborates (tan) copious and profound matters, especially relating to the principles of reality (tattva) and sacred mantras, and because it provides liberation (tra), it is called a tantra.

I rather subscribe to the definition that tantra is an accumulation of practices and ideas. So true and yet so difficult to comprehend. Moreover, tantra originates from a land where Hinduism and Buddhism were widely practiced and certain beliefs and deities and rituals/ceremonies are borrowed to/from each other. Today, about 1800 years after tantra’s birth, it is too late to ask who borrowed from whom.

A long intro to a complex topic but I I’d like to stress that in the wider world of tantra, it is NOT a sexual practice. Otherwise I would not have my 200 hr Teacher Certificate in ISHTA yoga, ISHTA being an acronym for Integrated Science of Hatha, Tantra and Ayurveda. I am sorry to see the meaning of tantra often disgraced and it does not help to have so many different interpretations. In the end of the day tantra boils down to using and channelling one’s energy in the best possible way to balance the body and mind.

I have picked up the following “tantric” things for my yoga practice – visualisation, using mantras and some physical yoga techniques supporting my female organs (tantric knowledge is as a rule passed from a woman to woman and in a very sexist India until up-to-date this has probably been the most liberating practice for women). In tantra a woman is equal or superior to a man because of her ability do give birth to life. But after giving birth several times, some muscles need special attention. In gender neutral yoga practice men and women are treated with gender neutral yoga poses. But being able to adjust a class so that our physiological differences are taken into account, will greatly benefit both. Just an example – due to women’s pelvis being proportionally bigger, the centre of gravity for women is located somewhat lower from men’s. And when a woman flexes her hip, the hip rotates inward but this is not the case for men (noticeable in the lounge pose for example). For a yoga teacher this means that you may need to give different cues to men and women to make adjustments. This is very rarely done, mind you. Alignment taught in “gender-neutral” yoga poses tends to honor men’s body more than women’s.

But back to visualisation, vibrations and mantras. What are they?

If you are to meet a teacher who uses tantric tools which are not only about working with sexual energy but just energy, you could use different sounds during the class do a practice where the vibrations of sound together with different asanas help release tensions in the body. Sound is a powerful ally. You could also experience a class where shaking body or limbs extensively or swaying/swinging movements are used. Or moving some limb or the whole body back and forth repetitively together with a mantra/sound. You could also experience a class with different visualisation techniques – from flames and energy pillars to hindu gods or Buddha.

At worst, you could end up in a ritual with black magic and occult practices or ritualized sexual practices. Again, remember that tantra originates from a country where it was practiced by both higher and lower social classes or castes and the less educated they were, the more magic and occult it turned to be.

And now about mantras. Mantras are sacred words, messages or sounds if translated from Sanskrit (or just words or sounds) believed to have spiritual or healing powers. Some gurus assign special mantras to specific students and ask them to repeat those sounds during yoga practice or before meditation. Mantras are essential in tantra because the sound guides the energy paths. There are countless words/syllables regarded as mantras, mostly the Sanskrit languagw is used though. And what makes it even more complicated, in some practices the word kriya is used instead of mantra.

Kriya means “action, deed” in Sanskrit. There is one quite well-known kriya or mantra called “Sa-hum” or “Soham” (meaning “I am that” in Sanskrit). Or hamsa – an amulet symbolising the hand of God; or the sound of inhale and exhale respectively. Whatever, it is a tantric breathing technique which complements asanas (physical practice) with visualisation-breathing techniques. During ISHTA 200 Teacher Training we learnt to use “Sa-hum” both with inhale and exhale changing the order depending on what resonates during the yoga practise with the individual spirit.

Think “sa” when you inhale and let the awareness travel from the head all the way down to the sacrum or pubic bone (more advanced students down to Mula Bandha) and with an exhale think “Hum” and let the awareness radiate through the body like sunbeams; or travel with your awareness from your pubic bone back to the head.

The aim of mantras is to aid holding focus and awareness in the body and in the present moment. Sometimes mantras also aid in selecting a bodily range which is potentially less ambitions to the yoga student who wants to go too deep in poses (thanks to focusing on the present, the breath and the body). And then comes the more sophisticated part related to working with the energetic body. Or the carnal one, depending on what tantra school one happens to embrace.

Think of mantras as a language you use every day. We all describe ourselves and our actions and thoughts with certain words. The frequency of thinking/uttering “I must”, “I hate” or “I love”, “I like” can have more influence over your mind than the mantras in a language you usually do not understand (Sanskrit) during a yoga class. Your greatest mantras are your “darling expressions” which follow you everywhere and influence how you perceive the world. When you change your mantras, the world around you changes, too. This is the prosaic side of tantra, the art of accumulated practices and ideas intended not to clog the mind and reduce the visibility. But every time it turns into a sect-like practice, there is no visibility and there is no clarity.

Kairi

More reading:
Tantra (Wikipedia)
Female lower back has evolved to accommodate the strain of pregnancy (Harvardgazette Dec 12, 2007)
Women’s Health and Fitness Guide, Michele Kettles, Colette L. Cole, Brenda S. Wright
Olympic differences in the way men and women move (Huffington Post, Dr. Douglas Field 8 May 2012)

There are approximately 320 pairs of muscles (in total approximately 640) in a human body. They are amazing protein filaments which form a tissue called muscle in our body. Muscles surround the bones and when they contract and release, they massage us from inside: their contractions assist in blood circulation and make even our organs slightly shift location or change shape. Take  the diaphragm for example – its contraction and release make the organs below the diaphragm move up and down respectively. In order for muscles stay tuned, we need exercise them actively throughout our lives.

Every movement we do is like a complex coreography of bones, joints, connective tissue, nerves, blood vessels and muscles. Our heart is also a muscle although the muscle there is called cardiac muscle and it works somewhat differently from the skeletal muscles which this text will primarily focus on. Skeletal muscles can be consciously controlled whereas cardiac muscle is governed autonomously

Muscle cells or fiber, also known as myocytes are long, tubular cells which contain protein filaments of actin and myosin that slide past one another, producing a contraction. Both the length and the shape of the cell changes during the contraction. Each muscle fiber is surrounded by a layer of connective tissue and every muscle is surrounded by it, too. This connective tissue is called fascia.

There are two basic types of exercise or energy expenditure in the body also related to the potential and oxygen intake of the resporatory cavity – aerobic and anaerobic.

• Aerobic means “with oxygen” because your muscles use oxygen and carbohydrates to fuel aerobic exercise
• Anaerobic means “without oxygen” as the muscles rely on carbohydrates.
  Drawing: “Skeletal muscle”.
  Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Aerobic capacity is the amount of oxygen consumed by the body during exercising. In aerobic respiration, oxygen helps enzymes metabolize energy through the glycolysis process. In anaerobic respiration, the cells have to use fermentation to keep the metabolism going and fermentation creates a waste byproduct called lactic acid.

Training the body to handle heightened levels of lactic acid can lead to greater performance in short duration. Training body to handle the anaerobic mode is used in exposive sports such as short distance running (Usain Bolt is good at it). However, activities lasting longer than about two minutes have a large aerobic metabolic component.

When lactic acid is released, this also heightenes stress levels in the body. Lactic acid in blood plasma is significantly elevated during stress situations or during anaerobic exercising. This is why according to a recent study I happened to read heavy exercising can sometimes augment stress, not to give a releaf to it. There is also a connexion between adrenaline and lactic acid – when the body starts to produce the hormone adrenaline in a flight or fight situation, adrenaline directly increases lactate release.

The intensity of exercise which causes that muscles can keep functioning in the aerobic mode, is different in different people. It depends also on age and physical fitness. The end of aerobic and the beginning of anaerobic is usually measured by heart rate per minute. The heart rate for a 30 year old can be 150 per minute in order to get to the anaerobic level. The more people age, the lower the rate per minute is. For example, for a 50 year old it only takes 135 beats per minute to come to the anaerobic level. At rest the heart beats ca 70-80 times per minute.

Yoga is a practice which is intended to be running primarily on aerobic level although there are different kinds of yoga which can also take the practitioners to the anaerobic mode. Why is the aerobic mode preferred and predominant in yoga?

Although some muscles may sometmes be running in the anaerobic mode, the idea is to relieve tensions and by controlled slow and deep breathing make sure that there is enough oxygen supply to keep the heart from racing and the body producing high amounts of lactic acid. When exercising in an anaerobic mode, there is no stillness of mind. Think of throwing a stone into a big ant nest. It get’s busy and agitated, right. Same with a heavily exercising body – it just has too much stimuli to process.

There is no muscle in the body that works alone. Based on whether we run, sit, carry something heavy or dance, different muscles in the body are either married, divorced or indifferent to each other. Mucles are amazingly efficient – they can calibrate how much effort they have to put into a movement and use the minimum amount required (unless their owner pushes them consciously to behave differently).

It is important to remember that people are different and not in every body does the same muscle the same amount of work in the same position. In yoga practice, the idea that each human body works somewhat differently and  there are variations in muscular movement, can help to keep an open mind in asana practice. This being said, this does not mean that you can do whatever you like. If you keep holding the weight of your body either on the outer or inner side of your feet, this is bound to create imbalances and strain some leg and thigh and even back muscles too much and some too little. Same if you keep rounding your shoulders forward and bowing the head while working behind the computer, it is bound to shorten your anterior neck muscles, pectoralis minor (connects the bones of the chest to the shoulder) and the anterior deltoid muscle (the muscle on top of the shoulder and upper arm) among other things. At first it gets uncomfortable and after a while it can cause pain.

It is also important to remember that muscles and fascia are interconnected. The connective tissue facia, which surronds muscles like a thin coating or separates organs, has up to 10 times more sensory receptors than the muscle. One could say that nothing in the muscles takes place wihtout the supervision of the fascia. It is like the muscle’s personal trainer which tells how much it needs to contract or release. A damn good personal trainer though and well informed about the exact conditions and capabilities at the very moment.

As a yoga practitioner it is good to be aware what limits you want to test with your yoga practice. Regardless of what your muscles do, there is the anatomy of your body, too. Yoga comes from a country where people in general have a much greater range of movement in the hip joint. Watch any Bollywood film featuring a scene with dancers, and you notice that these hip openings are much more challenging to a regular dancer in the Western world. As a yoga teacher, it is good to know how to work with a less flexible hip joint when using asanas developed for a more flexible range.  And then there’s the ego. My modern dance teacher once told me (she is teaching dance at a university) that she never met a student who understood the limits without having injured him or herself first. Next time I will write about the consequences of listening to the ego. 18+ years of yoga practice has included quite many trials and errors. I guess my modern dance teacher was right…

Kairi

More reading:

The top 5 ways facsia matters to athletes

Yoga anatomy. 2012. Leslie Kaminoff, Amy Matthews

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle

http://www.livestrong.com/article/158315-what-is-anaerobic-respiration-in-humans/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobic_exercise

http://www.innerbody.com/image/musc08.html

 

I wrote this as a pre or after read for my yoga course last  year. It focuses on the essence of breathing as a bodily function which has a paramount effect on the nervous system. You need to have some interest in anatomy and biology in order for this text to be relevant to you.

Breathing is a sign of being alive. People cannot live, eat, work and function normally and hold breath at the same time. The longest record of holding breath is 22 minutes[1], unachievable to most of us and unnecessary to even try. Mind you, 22 minutes would not be possible on the land, it is only in the water that our bodies launch an extra oxygen conservation mode which prolongs the ability to hold breath.

Breathing is among few functions in the body (in addition to swallowing and to some extent also blinking and bowel movement) which we can control but which is also autonomous and works even when we do not think about it. We do not need to think consciously about inhaling and exhaling – it just happens. And ’just’ is a complete understatement like also the myth about humans using only 10% of the brain’s capacity. Breathing is an intricate orchestration of many muscles in the body, not only the diaphragm – the primary organ of breathing. If breathing were an orchestra, the diaphragmC would be the conductor. But what is the conductor without a team of devoted and experienced musicians (read: organs/muscles)?

When we breathe in, we take in oxygen and nourish our blood with it, oxygen is transported to all organs via arteries and later capillaries. After carbon dioxide is dumped into the blood in capillaries, this venous blood is carried back towards our heart and lungs. In the lungs where the venous blood is taken, small air sacs called alveoli, formed of specialised cells, are responsible for exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen.

The interesting thing with our lungs is that they normally function below their capacity – it is only during heavy exercising that we start testing the limits of how much and how quickly our lungs can exchange waste (carbon dioxide) for nourishment (oxygen). So if you do not give your lungs any exercise, they will loose their tone.

It is also important to remember that we have two cavities in the body – the thoracic – where the lungs are; and the abdominal where the stomach is located. Although we are sometimes told to breathe through the stomach in yoga classes, it does not actually happen as it is not possible. The abdominal cavity only changes shape, not volume, when we breathe (and do not eat). Only the thoracic cavity can change both shape and volume while breathing.

Why is this important to know in practicing yoga? Often teachers instruct and talk about breathing with the belly. Belly breathing will help to relax the abdominal muscles (obliques). But practicing too much belly breathing will not help to tone the muscles between the ribs called intercostals which are extremely important in creating more volume for the lungs. And you need to practice yoga safely and engage the uddiyana bandha – the abdominal lock which basically means activating your abdominal muscles around your navel. This will protect you from compensating in asanas like utkatasana (chair) or plank or anything requiring the joint effort of your core muscles. Otherwise you overwork the muscles of your back which end up being tight and discontent after a yoga class.

How and why is breathing important in yoga practice?

By knowing how our breathing system functions, we can use it more efficiently. In yoga, all practice – asanas or physical postures, meditation and other mental practice is always linked to breathing.

Breathing in a controlled way enables to steer other functions in body – heart rate and blood pressure, also the condition of muscles- Breathing is also the gateway to the parasympathetic nervous system – the intricate web of nerves wrapping and penetrating different organs in the body which can signal the body that it is time to relax. Even when the mind does not want to, with the help of breathing it is posible to calm down.

People in stress may find it hard to breathe deeply at first as all muscles around the thoracic cavity have tightened by the production of adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormones which trigger the flight and fight response of the sympathetic nervous system.

Accessory muscles to breathing in addition to the diaphragm are Quadratus lumborium, Rectus abdominus, Rhomboids, Pectoralis minor, serratus anterior and posterior and sternocleidomastoid together with scalene muscles which lifts and opens the sternum, Lattisimus dorsi and trapezius which open the chest and intercostal muscles which either create more or less space b/w the ribs.

Should any of the abovementioned muscle groups be tight or malfunctioning, this decreases the lung capacity and does not let the respiration be efficient.

Breathing is also related to behavioural patterns and one way to learn about these patterns is to observe one’s breath.

What happens with your body and mind when you breathe slower and deeper?

–       It increases oxygen saturation in cells
–       It engages parasympathetic nerve system – the relaxed state of mind and body
–       It increases the variability of heart-rate
–       It increases mental focus
–       It increases the activity of the brain waves (alpha) which facilitate focus and inner calm

Living a somewhat or an overly stressful life makes the sympathetic nervous system dominate over the parasympathetic. This means that there is very little mental and/or physical balance. By directing some awareness from your Facebook account or Instagram pictures to just breathing slow and deep at least 10 times during the day can you decrease the stress level. Try, it works.

Most importantly, I have realised that it is not the stress trigger that matters but my response to it. Think about your reaction at external stimuli in whatever form it is. And take a few slow and deep breaths.

[1] Fortunately the 22 min record owner Stig Severinsen has PhD in Medicine and lots of experience  in swimming and diving so he knew what devils he was taming.

Kairi

Uncried tears, unleashed powers, undreamed ambitions, unsolved puzzles, unrevealed secrets, unloved lives, unimagined possibilities, untaken choices, unborn children, unknown answers to unheard questions. A universe with un in verse. An end which never really has come to a beginning. Something filled with nothing.

It only takes a thougt to fill this empty space. To turn un- to done.

Some people that have emotionally meant different things to me, are not around anymore. Some of them too early. It has made me wonder a lot about the meaning and responsibility of living. What will I leave behind when my time is up? A scary thought but just. I would never like to end up like Steve Jobs who said in an interview before his death that he hoped that his children would find out who he really was from the book about his life. I do not want my children to learn about me from a book, no. Neither do I want to leave behind me destroyed lives in destroyed countries and shattered homes. I do not want to leave behind me a piece of marveled art while I am a complete mess in my own mind. I don’t want to leave behind more suffering than happiness. There is a difference between divine and machiavellistic-self-destructive energy.

I would like my dearest ones to see the light side of the cessation of my material existence and make use of their time so that it will not be spent idly and selfishly. I want them to go on with giving, loving, learning and sharing.

Out of sadness comes the greatest happiness. But there is no way to turn back time and make the undone into done. And there is no way to go back and turn left where one turned right. No way. And what’s more, it is small things that sometimes make a huge difference. They turn un- to done.

Kairi

A few days ago a group of people, including me, were discussing a case in the media which the readers had reacted adversely to.  It does not matter what the case was, what matters is the root cause of the anger or frustration which people, organisations and even countries can arouse with their wrongdoings every day: the lack of integrity.

Why is integrity such a hard nut crack for the grown-up world? Look at children. “Mom, why do you look so angry and wrinkle your eyebrows – is it because of me?” asks my 8-year old son when I have had a tough day at work and have not yet been able to let go of it. Or he states in a loud and clear voice while staring at a person with green hair and pierced face on his way school: “Mom, promise me that you never do this to yourself”.

Where does this honesty disappear when we grow older? We see someone who has a problem which shows all over the place and face and we choose to ignore it. We solve the situation by pretending that the problem does not exist and cause the person to sink even deeper. We may see someone crying or lying on a street and walk by without trying to help.

One of the most important principle in yoga is ahimsa – non-harming. We can harm both by saying ant NOT saying, by doing and NOT doing. In yoga it is possible to lose integrity as a teacher by believing that by NOT doing or saying, we do less harm. As a student, the lack of integrity causes us to try too hard during yoga practice.

When my son asked me not to look like the green-haired person, he meant more than that. He meant also the invisible to the eye – that this person was not in balance. My son was being brutally honest. Like children often are.

This brutal honesty is there until at some point the grown-up world overtakes it and replaces with compromises, an accepted code of conduct and rules of conformity. The tricky thing with being brutally honest is that it can cause confrontation. Confrontation can trigger action. And it is never easy to act because it exerts more energy – both mental and physical. One’s values can be put into question. But the interesting thing is that we oftentimes stop learning when we stop asking confrontational (requiring action and change) questions. “Why was Hitler such a bad man, Mom?” my son once asked. It took me a long time to explain it.

In a balanced world confrontation and being brutally honest are good things. In a balanced world being honest is not being violent. But in this imbalanced world that we live in, honesty is often misinterpreted and treated as the trigger of violence and harm. There is nothing wrong with honesty but a lot of things are wrong with our reaction to it.

When we move away from integrity, we move away from balance. When we do not want to admit things to ourselves or stop seeing the obvious, we are lying. Yoga for me is a way to practice integrity. Because I can only change myself and if I know better my root causes, I can be more honest towards myself and others. Is hard work, a struggle where the 5 senses often want to mislead and even the brain wants to trick into believing an illusion rather than the reality. But I keep trying because the world with integrity is a much better place than the world without.

Kairi

These thoughts have been following me for quite a while now. So I try to write them down. To see if those connections that I have found to exist, work even when they follow one another in a sequence in a text rather than just pop up in the head from time to time.

Imagine that your boss asks you to work less every day going forward (not applicable unless you are a workaholic, most of us have other addictions, though). No, our managers don’t want us to work less. You are expected to be more and more productive and usually get a bonus when you deliver above the expectations.

Human life usually starts with us being dependent and completely unproductive except for the huge learning experience. Other than that, we only consume in the beginning of our lives – attention, mother’s milk, nappies, etc. Until we start giving back affection to the people we are so dependent on. For quite many years our only production is (hopefully) love towards our parents. It is an exchange product – we also expect our parents to love us back and languish if they don’t. We start to produce and give “back to society” when we start to work and get paid for our work. And once we retire, we either stop working and consume more than we give back in terms of high medical bills paid by existing taxpayers or we, for some time, add value by working and receiving retirement benefits at the same time (where they exist, otherwise we depend on our future generation to take care of us).

Economic theories are based on growth models. You either produce more with the existing number of people or the number of people that produce more increases as well so you increase both quality and quantity. And because you produce more, you want this to be consumed by more people so you welcome the increase of the number of consumers. So essentially this means that the economic growth can take place in the societies with positive demography. Or in societies which have borrowed from the future, to finance the present.

And now I come to the point I wanted to make. Something is wrong with the economic theories which are based on growth models which essentially promote an ever-increasing number of human population on the planet. These models are equally unsustainable as the ever increasing human population. The economic curve of the human life illustrates it. There comes a time when you have less of everything – health, money, the bodily range and even thinking speed. So you have to be smart. Do less and invest into thoughts, intentions and deeds which create most value. In terms of our planet, maybe we have come to a point where we have to have less children? To exercise birth control to the full. And get rid of stupid religious hindrances as illogical and misleading as the source documents those beliefs are based on. To be smart, you know.

There has to be a model which is sustainable even at the times of the decrease of everything. And this sustainability is not only based on defined contribution pension models or investing in advance. I have read many theories about how to prepare for the future, not that many about how to handle it when it is already there. Maybe this is the reason why economic forecasting is so inaccurate.

We are expected to walk an extra mile, to make our best, to try hard, to be a top performer, to stand out, to make a difference, to win, to succeed, to be the top notch. We are rarely expected to think and do less. But in yoga, oh yes, you are even encouraged to do, plan, feel less. You are encouraged to be. After all those hours of brainwash which is taking you to the opposite direction, to “just be” can be the hardest thing ever.

How are to the economic theory of growth, your boss and to our lifecycle connected?

As for the theory of growth – there are more ways to grow than the measurable ones we know and apply. We are too much oriented to the numeric and easily measurable growth AROUND us, not within us. We even don’t know how to measure the inner development. No intelligence test will help to completely capture how clever both emotionally and spiritually you really are.

As for human lifecycle and the connection with yoga – it just proves that exponential growth is not possible in other than monetary terms. And who said that money is the only measure of the worthiness of life? And even if someone said it, do you really believe this? If you do, show me a happy society in the developed part of the world (I use the world developed in the way the economists interpret it with GDP per capita). Anyway, what I am saying is that the value of consuming more will not make you happier. The same applies to your life after retirement. You essentially have to do less in order to succeed. Like in yoga.

As for your boss (if you have a boss, maybe you are your own boss:-)) – being busy and becoming even busier does not mean that you necessarily add more value. Becoming more stressed and not being able to focus will not make you more productive in the actual sense of the word. Interestingly enough, unless you have a really smart boss, you are actually not asked to add more value, you are oftentimes asked to do more. So you have to be smart yourself.

This is why I like yoga. To come back to the basics. I do not need to listen to other clever people. I need to find the formula of my own life. Like the Chinese proverb says – if you think it cannot be done, do not stop the person who is doing it. This person who you are trying to stop from the impossible (according to your terms) has most likely found the formula of doing less. The formula of adding value. The essence of being. Yoga. And so much more.

Kairi

There is, as always, more to say than any words can describe. And the part which is vocal – not emotional or spiritual – is sometimes too limited to convey the actual meaning. It is like fumbling, stammering and halting without being able to make a point. And yet, I try.

Einstein was able to, in conjunction with the theory of relativity, to prove that even little mass can have outrageous amount of energy. Think of nuclear physics. But mainly, remember this simple formula where E (Energy)=m (mass)*c2(speed of light squared). The speed of light is approximately 300 000 000 meters per second. But it is not just that you take this number and multiply it with your mass . You square the speed of light and THEN times the mass. Everything is relative, of course. Even mass and energy but let’s simplify and stick to E=m*c2 right now.

Sometimes when I see tired people around me, I recall this formula. Or when I myself feel that my energy has left me. But it never does, we always have more energy than we ever are able to make use of.

Think of it in terms of yoga – we have a potential we never really utilize. If we were to use our energy only for good thoughts and deeds, we could make our world into a better place in a second – 7 billions times the mass, times the speed of light times the speed of light. It would be an astronomical figure – too big to give a context which we, humans, would be able to comprehend. Hence we don’t. And yet we are moving, transferring, sharing, taking, consuming, giving and – I should also mention – wasting energy every day. We are possessing something which everything which has a mass has by default.

In yoga we sometimes get to a level of higher consciousness which makes us, for a brief moment, just exist, see and at the same time feel and be part of this energy. It is an amazing pulsating force which does not need any evaluation, opinion or affectional relationship. It is always there and for a brief inexplicable moment you are able to comprehend it. Like an extra dimension in addition to space and time. Energy. A parallel universe.

In space time we are always able to locate us with the help of altitude, latitude, longitude and the given moment. Where are we located in terms of our energy? Do you know your place of energy? Or your time of energy?

More interestingly, it is not only energy we cannot use properly – we also underuse the capacity of our respiratory system, the capacity of our brain, the capacity of our nervous system just to name a few other functions. Or even misuse them from time to time. If I now were to come back to the purpose of yoga as a means to find a balance, come closer to the equilibrium, it seems that, at least in terms of living, it is not necessary to utilize one’s resources to the maximum amount. You never need cross the line in order to find out where the line was. Not in yoga. Instead you need to learn to channel your energy and rather than using your limits, KNOW where they are. There is always the potential but we do not need to exploit it most of the time. Thus, we are mostly in energy conservation mode.

Unfortunately the energy conservation mode we are running in when sharing positive feelings, positive words, positive thoughts and love, is far too ungenerous, far too limited to call this a balance. So, get on a yoga mat. Or find any other means to multiply your mass with positive energy. I mean the energy of creation, not destruction. Though everything is relative, of course.

Kairi

I have been thinking a lot about the aggressiveness of humans. Only recently the oldest (at least based on an archaeological finding) battlefield was discovered in Kenya. No mercy to a pregnant woman who was tortured and then killed, no mercy to children who were also brutally killed. The reason? Somebody was coveting someone else’s belongings.

It has been a known fact for a while now that humans share some genes with other bipeds who were living at the same time as us. Like Neanderthals who died out about 40 000 years ago. We have 1-4% of genetic material in common because at the time we coexisted, we cross bred. However, humans are still around but the Neanderthals are not. Why? The main reason why other similar species are extinct today is that we, homo sapiens were of the brutal and destroying kind. We caused their extinction.

Aggression sits in us so deep that it does not enable societies to function in a friendly way, it does not allow us to live in peace regardless of where we are located on this planed called the Earth. Aggression is making us wage war, worship weapons and physical superiority translated into superior military (think of all the obsession with war technology) preparedness in relationships between countries and continents. When Darwin said that only the most adaptable will succeed, he clearly did not mean the most adaptable in terms of aggression, this extremely destructive force. But it seems like it. Sometimes. At least when you look at the world and how we treat each other and other living creatures. The level of violence is high in human constellations regardless where they live and when they have lived. We rape, we torture, we kill and we even indulge in it. And we make films where we show how much we are transfixed in this topic. And they sell.

Human beings are utterly violent. This can be claimed based on a scientific tool called observation. Fortunately, there is another scientific tool called interpretation. Although observation and interpretation are interlinked, I’d like to separate them for the purpose of finding a reason in our existence, finding a purpose which is beyond this thrash we accumulate both inside and around us and which only makes us appreciate the visible to the eye rather than all the 5 senses.

Instead of thinking that sooner or later we kill ourselves and other species and blow up the planet, I’d rather like to interpret this high level of aggression as a sign of immaturity. We are the species which have not yet had enough time to evolve. Just around 1 million years. Like Einstein once proved that time and space can be relative values, so is the length of human existence compared to the age of the universe or human intelligence compared to collective intelligence of all the living materia. We are not there yet. On the other hand – knowing that we have not been able to reduce aggression during the time of our existence makes me concerned. Will we learn? What will trigger a learning curve which values more co-operative qualities?

We have had over 20 000 years to figure it out. We may need double the amount to take us to the next level. The interesting thing with yoga is that a steady practice reduces violence. Knowing oneself leads to accepting the world and everyone in it in a more harmonious way. Yoga has existed about 4000 years. I hope that we only need about half the amount of time to find answers to the questions I posed above. If we have the time. If we can make use of this time. Do we? Can we?

Kairi

I wrote this poem a while ago. I sometimes read it to close off the class after Savasana. To replace meditation, which cannot always be performed in the office surroundings,  with something meaningful. It resonates with me. Strongly.

Inspired by yoga

I am open like the tree to the temple of wisdom
I embrace the flow of like a never-ending river
I reach out my hand and bond with the past, present and future
My inquisitive mind searches for the answers that I can find deep within

There are no obstacles to overcome
except for fear, insecurity and intolerance
which hold me back from acceptance, humbleness and love.

I am here. Right now. I listen. I let go.

There is no self-centred ego, neither pride nor prejudice
To come between me and everything that I am part of.

Namaste!

Kairi

Much, if not all human learning is based on repetition. Like Desmond Morris said in his book “The Naked Ape” – “you shall investigate the unfamiliar until it becomes familiar, you shall impose a rhythmic repetition on the familiar, you shall vary this repetition in as many ways as possible. These rules of play and learning continue with 3 more but the essence is the same. What it among other things means is that we need time, more than we sometimes think we do, to change a pattern and to learn to do things differently. Same applies to yoga or any other physical practice. Changing one’s own behaviour is harder than anything else on earth.

Our bodies do not like radical changes, adjustments need to be subtle or gradual in order to be really effective. Explosive changes create chaos and in chaos another disorder can arise if one cannot fill the space with order. And often we are not mature or intelligent enough to create order because it is harder, it is much easier to go via the highway rather than take a windy road on a rugged terrain. An example of a highway in yoga practice could be pushing yourself too hard. Stretching so it hurts. Choosing a range which our body is not capable of doing without unnecessary stress and torque. We all have been there. Or OK, most of us. Mind you, every mental injury is also a physical one and vice versa.

Only very observant, very self-aware people can master radical changes. This, however, is out of all the risks in the world, which I would, with today’s knowledge, weigh thousands of times before taking it. Because playing with one’s own life is reckless and irresponsible.

I am not a child anymore, wired to the universal intelligence without a dozen of filters in my mind. It does not enable me to switch on intuition while testing new things and knowing, believing, being sure that I will succeed. While having full awareness of my body. Instead of being in the now, I carry all my have-been’s and will-be’s with me. Hence, the path of change is much slower in a grown-up than in a child. A notion we have a problem to accept, it seems.

According to Tao the water droplets will finally make a hole to the rock the fall onto. Time is a misused dimension. It does not matter when, what matters is that one day it will happen.