Watering the tree of life

I swam today after many months. The water was just right and the evening sky was a sight for thirsty eyes. Treetops fading into twilight even as the birds slowly fell silent and the bats started whizzing around. A few of them skimmed the pool waters and I watched them as I swam or floated on my back. There was a dead dragonfly being taken apart by industrious ants and I watched them keep at it in between laps. Life and living, death and dying. And in the middle the waves of all duality.

Floating on my back, I felt alive like I haven’t felt in a long time. Just the open skies, water and life around me was enough to pump some energy into this tired container. After I came home, something prodded me to pick out a book blind and it turned out to be The Tree of Yoga. The page opened to the chapter titled Old Age. It used the analogy of swimming in one of the paragraphs and I was struck once again by the resonance of thoughts. Uncanny how they are amplified in every day living.

Another book led to exploring the element of water and it led to a rumination on the rupa of water within and without. Eventually it comes to the breath of life, inspiration and expiration. In waves, always moving else it stagnates and dies. How many vritti waves happen in the mind between that first inhalation and final exhalation?

Designed spaces

The main hall at RIMYI has four pillars which neatly divides it into 5 parts and I can’t help but muse if it wasn’t a deliberate esoteric design meant to make the students pause. The platform and the ceiling mirror this principle of five. I wonder if it is a way to subconsciously cue the Pancha kosha, pancha bhuta, pancha prana and so on.

The pinnacle of the building has a shrine to the eternal Hanuman and the numerous sculptures that occupy different spaces throughout the building and compound invite contemplation. Oftentimes, I reach the hall early when it is mostly empty and look around soaking in the different elements present. Slowly, the room fills in with people, some with euphoric expressions of practice, many with a serious demeanour, a few chatty in company and still others who sit alone. No prizes for guessing which category I fall into. 😊

Soon, there will be an intense exploration of the sutras that demand 100% attention. Until then, I sit and see.

Hari Om

Stillness in Dynamism

Asanas are deceptive in their form, they appear to be finished in one final pose. Shape assumed and then dissolved. Like water. 

Winter is melting into summer, rapidly. The water in my matka is just the right degree of cool to quench my thirst. The pool waters provide buoyancy and resistance as I swim. My thoughts flow one into another until they bear no link to the original thought. I feel water everywhere…

Free flowing and stagnant.

Life sustaining and suffocating. 

Terrifying deluge and gurgling brook. 

Thundering waterfall and the silence of a mother’s womb. 

Meandering rivers and gigantic waves. 

Baptism waters and bearer of ashes.

Lakes and Mountains by Lawren Harris

And then there is pralaya…

Living Water

There’s much to share and it seems too vast and interconnected to begin at a single point. The shloka or two that I read in the morning simmer through the day and spills into subsequent readings over the next few days. While it is not a linear and systematic method of learning, I find it useful in allowing intuition to do its job. New connections make themselves apparent without thirsty seeking. A different kind of abhyasa, one of being rather than doing. It feels like another cycle of learning has started yet again. 

The fascination with the panchamahabhutas continues along with watching the play of gunas within myself and around me. It takes the drama out of everyday excitement and irritation and provides a clear framework for self-study. 

Recently, I came across a rather obscure book at a friend’s home and the title was intriguing. So, I borrowed it and it has been a fascinating read so far. A smattering of some of the gems from that tiny little copy are below.

Actually, the mysteries of water are similar to those of the blood in the human body. In nature, normal functions are fulfilled by water just as blood provides many important functions for mankind.

Water in its natural state shows us how it wishes to flow, so we should follow its wishes.

Naturally moving water augments itself. It improves in quality and matures considerably. 

Water which sinks into the earth from the atmosphere will pick up salts and minerals and other substances which restore its vitality; it is enlivened by isolation from light and air. But there is also a certain  journey in both time and distance that the water must make before it becomes internally mature.

– Living Water by Olof Alexandersson

It reads like the mystic shlokas and sutras and I cannot help but think of the parallels in yogic concepts. And that opens a whole new vista. 

Living Water by Olof Alexandersson

Accordingly, my practices are changing and it is a natural shift towards watching rather than just doing. It raises questions and also teaches to stay with them. Something  Schauberger says about inheritance is similar to what the Gita and the Sutras speak.

Schauberger’s Heritage

Hari Om