THE BODY, MIND & SPIRIT OF YOGA

By Paul Kelly
The practice of yoga is most powerful when the objective is to experience integrity. It is frequently the case that practitioners get lured in other directions.
Flexibility is the most commonly sought superficial result of yoga. While flexibility is wonderful and important along with the myriad other benefits of yoga like strength, stamina, & coordination, one could say that these pale in comparison to the experience of integrity or wholeness of the body which defacto leads to experiencing the oneness of all. What is it in the practice of yoga that brings about this experience of oneness? In truth for oneness to be experienced, all of the elements, earth, water, fire, air and ether, must be expressed in a balanced way. This is easy to say, but upon honest application one finds how difficult this is. For the purposes of this article, I will stick with the elements of ether and fire, awareness and bandha respectively.

Fundamental to experiencing integrity is awareness. The word experience implies awareness. Yet it is amazing how easy it is to lose the focus of awareness on the yoga mat and in daily life. The habitual tendency to allow the mind to drift into past or future is the culprit and it’s underlying fuel is fear. Fortunately just as muscles, tendons and ligaments can unlearn tension, so also fear can be unlearned as awareness is gently and non-judgementally redirected back to the present. As this is done over and over again, one begins to learn that it is OK to be here now and that there is nothing to fear. This happens in the mind in conjunction with the body's release of tension confirming in a practical way what has been stated in the cliched phrase, “body -- mind -- spirit.” This briefly describes what is happening with awareness, focus or the ether/space aspect of our yoga practice. What about the fire? Fire manifests in yoga practice as bandha. The traditional translation of this sanskrit term is “lock” or “seal”. Another way you might think of bandha is “valve”. The implication here is a valves capacity to regulate flow. The bandhas are adjustments made in the body while practicing postures. The three that I want to name are mulabandha (adjustment in the pelvis), uddiyanabandha (adjustment in the rib cage and abdomen) & jalandharabandha (adjustment in the neck and throat). According to yoga theory and experiential accounts of yogis, the bandhas control energy in the body. Their use allows the practitioner to direct energy along certain paths for reasons of safety on the one hand and physical/energetic effects on the other.

We’re just scratching the surface here, but I’d like to bring in another aspect of the bandhas which sheds light on the experience
of integrity, namely the spiral. When the bandhas are applied, a spiralic flow of energy is established within the core of the body. Advanced practitioners can feel this. In addition, this spiralic principle can be found to be expressed in the rest of the body. Look at the way muscles wrap around limbs. Extend an arm or leg and fully activate, without strain, all the muscles. Slowly rotate the limb in one direction
and then the other. It can be seen that it takes opposing spirals to allow the full extension of a limb. Further, the emphasis of one spiral over the other leads to the rotation of the limb in one direction or the other. Notice that this requires the full participation of the limb. All muscles must be fully activated with joints open. Applying
this concept in a posture would mean that hands, feet, arms and legs would all be fully activated in conjunction with the activation that is happening in the core bandha adjustments. This is the expression of integrity in the body. The practitioner’s experience of the effects of these adjustments deepens over time. In essence the continual reapplication of integrity in the body through effort initially, leads to the body’s remembrance and permanent reestablishment of integrity without effort, for the yoga mat and whatever else you happen to be doing. It is ironic that effort must be applied to uncover the integrity that is always present. In a way the effort is in the letting go of holding on. In any event, let awareness and bandha play an equal role in your practice along with alignment, flow and breath. Beginners are advised that there are potential dangers with these techniques and they are best investigated with the guidance of an instructor who is experienced in such matters.

Paul Kelly studies yoga with Godfrey Devereux. You can reach him via email at kellyyoga@comcast.net or by phone at 770-935-4148.