Lightbody
and the Internal Arts
of China and Japan
(email
exchange with an indoor student)
Simha:
Been making some wonderful personal discoveries lately with regard to
Amrita Asana and its relationship to inner martial arts/inner hatha
yoga.
A
few weeks ago when traveling to Finland I practiced standing
meditation at the airport. As I stood past the first minutes, I
started naturally applying the principles of Amrita Asana to the
standing posture. More specifically, I understood the importance of
"expanding" in all directions (up/down, front/back,
left/right). At first, I was thinking of it as kinda pushing to fill
the whole frame but soon realized I might as well just allow myself
to be pulled.
Whichever
perspective you take, what I am describing is sort of intentional
settling into the whole "frame" of the posture. This very
quickly unifies the whole body in the standing posture and thus
activates the meridian field.
This
week I made the same discovery with regard to various aspects of
pranayama. I've always loved breathing techniques, and have regularly
practiced Bellows Breath (bhastrika) and Shining Skull (kapalbhati),
combined with breath retention and yogic locks (bhandas).
First
I connected the actual inhalation and exhalation with the "expanding"
in all directions. This wasn't entirely new, of course, as it's how
Vajra Breath is taught in RBY, but I felt a deepening in the sense of
the whole body breathing 360 degrees regardless of intensity. This
feels effortless (and very empowering!) when all muscles are working
in unison.
Then,
with regards to yogic locks, more specifically root lock (mula
bhanda), abdominal lock (uddijayana bhanda), and chin lock
(jalandhara bandha), I realized that I have been doing these three
locks separately from one another. This has caused unnecessary effort
required in holding the locks. When applying the principles of Amrita
Asana, on the other hand, the body (and thus the locks) become
united, revealing the great lock (mahabhanda), which again instantly
forces open the meridian system. It's a subtle point but makes all
the difference.
The
above discoveries have also led me to experiment deeper with the
basic posture in sitting meditation. It seems obvious when I say it,
but of course, the very same principles apply to just sitting as
well. By intentionally filling the frame of the seated posture, the
meridian body is forced open and sitting becomes effortless.
I
know Baba has been talking about these things for a long time, and
I've had glimpses of it myself too. Nevertheless, the practice of
Amrita Asana has propelled the maturation of this understanding like
nothing else. It feels like it has naturally opened up a whole nother
dimension to the practices I've been doing for years. Very much
looking forward to exploring this further. Thank you!
Baba:
I remember when I first taught you standing practice (c. zhan zhuang)
in Tammisaari in 2016-2017. We've come back to it every now and then
at retreats and when hanging out. I've also lead qigong and zhan
zhuang sessions at retreats for years and years but I saw a problem
there: that it was too hard (unpleasant) and too difficult to people
to understand what the practice was about. I've done that work when I
began internal martial arts 25 years ago and it took me years to even
get the basics right, even with lineage teachers, and it was just
uncomfortable to grind all those hours. So seeing this problem with
my students I wanted and needed to find a way to make the training
much more enjoyable than the grind or die-traditional training style
so that you'd even get interested in internal arts and their
principles as they are taught in East-Asia, namely China and Japan.
After
having learned a wide variety of internal practices it took me a
number of years to come up with a sensible structure that my students
could learn and start practicing. So I took some bits that I had
learned from internal martial arts, such as Yi Jin Jing, Second
Course Yiquan of Han Jingyu and hard Shaolin qi gong, Indian yoga
postures, basic elements of yoga tantra (prayer and mantra) and
subtle centers that have long been forgotten by the yogic culture and
put them all together as the first level of Amrita Asana Yoga (abr.
AAY). I've gotten so many positive comments about the practice,
people really love it but the thing is that if I had taught under the
name of "internal martial training", people would have had
no interest, I am certain. So I tricked all of you, ha, but as you
know the results are great. There is no yoga or qigong style that
puts all these elements together but I suspect there might have been
in ancient China in the days of the ancient immortals.
What
you describe about realizing how to activate the frame (after just 6
months of regular Amrita Asana practice) took me years of traditional
internal martial arts practice to understand. I got glimpses of it
and of many other things but I didn't really understand it but after
a number of years. Through your AAY practice you have now developed a
connected physical frame that you can apply your intent (c. yi/意)
on, to affect changes and transformation in the meridian field.
Adding yi to AAY is taught on level 2 but you already got it.
I
have made quite a few posts about yi recently because it is one of
the key practices to transform the meridian field which condition as
you know is the ground of immortality/lightbody/rainbow body. Yi is
physicalized concentration. Being able to focus one's mind mentally
is one thing but to focus (yi) with one's whole body mass, the whole
skeletal structure, muscles and tissues harnessed behind it, like a
pack of horses in reigns, is entirely different thing. The principle
of yi is entirely unknown in Indian and Tibetan yogas and their
traditions but developed into a key principle in China and Japan, and
their many arts and traditions.
From
the perspective of hatha yoga, without yi you're just doing a
physical workout with moments of mental focus here and there through
dristhis, bandhas and so on but what is typical is that even highly
regarded professional of hatha yoga never develop a frame as it is
understood in China and Japan. If you don't have a connected internal
frame, even if you could put yourself into very complex and advanced
postures, the effect on the meridians that makes a great part of our
psyche will be very limited. With a built frame, yoga asanas will
immediately take a different gear because the frame allows one to not
only work on the physical field but also the meridian field which is
really really important from the common perspectives of health and
wellbeing, but also from the point of view of trauma healing and
preparation of the lightbody. In Amrita Asana Yoga you start with
postures but through the tensing of all muscles at once in each
posture, you actually start building that frame effectively from the
start and work out the whole meridian field. It makes the body very
strong very fast because you're doing a gym workout (without weights)
through the tensing and flushing the whole system with prana/chi that
is spiritually charged because of the preparation in the beginning of
practice and during through mantras or whatever techniques from RBY
you might be using. The difference between level 1 and 2 of AAY is
that it just becomes subtler and with yi-without yi is given more
emphasis.
That
phrase "with yi - without yi" is something that I could say
a few words. It is written all over the Taoist classics, this thing
about "marvellous alive non-doing" or wu wei and it has
been extensively written by zen artists of Japan during the past over
1000 years. My master Terayama Roshi dedicated his life to studying
and writing about it, as did the masters before him in the lineages.
But just like on the side of dharma or spirituality this principle is
vastly misinterpreted in various ways. Not having to do anything
about it for one to realize or to successfully wu wei just like the
immortals or that if you just sat immovably like the Buddha that'd be
the same as being a buddha are two of them.
One
great gift that mahamudra and dzogchen texts by Tibetan masters such
as Gampopa and Longchenpa have to give us is the clear definition
about the most fundamental spiritual part of us. It does not matter
whether we discuss of the Tao, Christ, God, buddhanature or whatever,
it makes sense that regardless of beliefs and opinions we are all
built the same way and have the same basic nature of mind.
Understanding this was made into science by the master yogis and
while I can see many others from other traditions speak about it
sometimes identically or similarly, I think it is because of the
unreligious pragmatic nature of buddhadharma that makes it more
understandable and therefore better accessible than any other system
I know about. Poetic, mystical and glorificational sources definitely
give as much benefits as they do harm because of the option of
(mistaken) interpretation. My point is that without knowing the
ground of all beings or the mind common to all beings, it is
impossible to understand without yi (c. 無
意) but you
know all this already.
So,
next in your practice, now that you have grasped all three: the
frame, yi and without yi; next step is to play with them. Form
doesn't matter. I stand, do yoga, sit, dance, walk, do crossfit and
lift weights applying "physicalized intention together with
basic awareness" and "basic awareness together with
movement but without intention". This strikes the main teaching
of Garab Dorje.
Rainbow-light
blessings,
-Baba,
30 March 23
Not disturbing at all, the opposite, always pleasure to chat with
friends of the path. Aha, yes. You're discussing about different
frequencies and systems of the subtle body. So I'll give it a go