“Tamaso ma jyotirgamayah” means “lead from darkness to light”
The video is of a morning self practice session where I attempt the vinyasa of the Intermediate Series or Nadi Soddhana not to be confused with the pranayama technique of alternate nostril breathing. The process and desired purpose is still similiar, for with the intensity of backbends, arms balances, leg behind the head postures and seven headstands at the end, rebalancing and a unblocking of energy currents or nadis in the subtle body or suksma shahira appears.
My squat in Pasasana and my backbending are slowly developing but the upper body and shoulders go through a process of realignment, and extreme expansion, spiralling and concentration. The leg behind the head poses require an immense core strength and yet revitalize and restrengthen the core after the backbends. Arm balances like crow and Pincha Mayurasana, Karandavasana, Mayurasana and Makrasana are intensified more than in most practices outside the Ashtanga flow. The action and strength of ujjayi reveals it’s wonder in bandha and chakra dowsing ,activating and directing.
For me as I practice everyday I try to find a rythym between the breath and movement and my familiarity with vinyasa sequence and asana. The release of clarity and wholeness that has followed many of these recent Nadi Sodhana Sadhana has often revealed impurities and created a disgust with the objects of sense and an irritation to moments of sensational expiriences in my daily life. Smells, tastes, sights, sounds and even proximal relationships in space reveal a wavering of transcendent equanimity and repulsive discrimination.
When purifying something the impuries often appear and occlude the awareness of the prescence of healing ….
Because the video is long and quite monotonous for some to view I will highlight some of the scenes.
The first 40 minutes were practiced in the darkness with faint lighting and a soundscape of awakening crows and the first skytrains of the morn.
At:
At 40:00 minutes I am into backbending and from the two “Bakasana” (Crane or Crow posture depending on traditions) I recline in a bound lotus posture for Supta Vajrasana or Sleeping Thunderbolt Seat… the Thunderbolt of Indra…
The dark blue light and sounds electric and menacing meet dawn at:
43:29… I drop back into the posture as the crepescule brings me into it’s healing light.
Crepescule is the twilight of dawn or dusk where the sun’s scaterred rays emit from 18 deg. or more below the horizon…
“Oh sweet light take away the pallor that is unhealthy to my heart and mind”
“Hrdrogyam mamasurya harimanam ca nasaya” Rg Veda
yoga27 