Yoga In Life: Article by Chris Griscom

YOGA AND MEDITATION FOR HOLISTIC HEALTH

      YOGA IN LIFE

The practice of yoga is a legacy given the modern world by ancient masters who understood the holographic intertwining of form and energy. Through a seemingly closed circuit of infinity, energies translate into form and form releases back into formless, pure energy.  This is the eternal pattern of life and death, incarnation and reincarnation.  Yoga captures the flow of these universal patterns through its pulse of motion and stillness, breath and gesture, meditation and sound, light and shadow.  True yoga not only passes through these stages, but also extends them out into the potential of all life.  A yogic being gives forth the template of peace and awakening to everything and everyone around them.

It is profoundly inspiring to discover that the origins of Yoga go back 5000 years to the more enlightened Indus-Sarasvate civilization whose ancient texts revealed a profound understanding of cosmic laws and consciousness.  They mastered levels of command over body and mind that far surpass ours, even today.   From the purity of their knowing and practice, Yoga has passed through many changes, and human existence has been vastly altered since they built their beautiful civilization.

These Masters of Yoga separated themselves from daily life to live primarily in isolated environments away from the distraction of worldly concerns.  We still hold today a thread of those spiritual conclusions that the lives of conscious beings, enthralled in their peaceful meditations, can only be true when one is disengaged from the speed and noise of normal life.  Just the opposite is true: The illumination our present reality can add to ancient wisdom is that we can, and must, bring together the inner and outer worlds so that there is an experience of integration wherein the true self is expressed and evolves through all of life’s multidimensional offerings—within third dimensional reality and far beyond!

Though in the Western world the word Yoga calls to mind the image of someone in a position of asana, or some physical positioning of the body, the true yogic state occurs as the body opens the flow of energy on deep internal levels, for the energetic rebalancing of the mind and spirit, which was the original intent of the exercise—whether there is a physical component or not.  

It may be that as the Masters became more enlightened, they saw that there was purpose to embodiment that necessitated bodily awareness, i.e., that the body could not be simply cast aside in the pursuit of universal truth, but rather needed to be honed and imbued with higher energy.  They began to create asana to this end.  Over many millennia, they discovered that the flow of Nadis, higher energy channels within and around the body, could be directed through hand gestures or Mudras.  They incorporated sound Mantras, motion and breath in the yogic practice and found that with all of these additions, the body’s creative potential truly could express its cosmic source.

The ancient Chinese philosophy of energy states that, “Blood follows Chi, Chi follows blood.”  The word Chi means life force energy, and when the blood is moved by specific techniques (such as Yoga) it builds the life force energy, which then creates a balance of the holographic, multi-dimensional being!

As a young woman, I was introduced to Hatha Yoga.  It was a short-lived experience because halfway through my first session, my Kundalini came roaring up my spine like a volcanic fire.   I was terrified! The teacher was just as shocked and could not help me.  After that experience, I went through many changes in my body and consciousness, but had no idea what had happened or insight about the gifts that began to appear in my life.

The Body is the Vehicle of the Soul.

It was years before I understood how the body could do these things and what it meant.  I finally realized that the body is not just bones and flesh; it is layered with subtle inner bodies that interface with invisible, sub-atomical and unmanifest realities.  It was these layers of subtle bodies that had changed me physically and spiritually.  Now I recognize that we have primordial bodies, sexual bodies, mind and emotional bodies, astral bodies, as well as brilliant bodies of light—all encased and enfolded by the outer physical form that so often confuses the unseen with non-reality.   Only as I became aware of them, was I able to free myself from the cloud of confusion.  I discovered that it is the power of meditation that melds them together physiologically and spiritually.  This is the Yoga of life!

Meditation can take the form of yogic asana that utilizes the motion of the body to shift our consciousness.  Stretching and leading the body into places that it is not used, to can help it align with health and vibrancy.

Yoga belongs in all of our daily thoughts, activities and actions.  It is expressed in a myriad of ways, even beyond the daily practice of asana, which remains a profound gift to the body, mind and spirit.   All asana offer us the state of peace and meditation.  Meditation creates an opening, a spin point, to cosmic energies that come naturally into the meditative being.  

The most pervasive Eastern interpretation of Yoga is the practice of meditative, expansion of consciousness that dissolves the restricted sense of self as an individuated form.  One may feel relaxed and open through the practice of asana and body stretching, but the true benefits of Yoga are the meditative energies that bring together mind and body in such a way as to greatly influence over-all health and activate spiritual awakening.

To access any true yogic state, one must enter into some form of meditative vibration.  These elevated levels of consciousness include a vast variety of shifts in awareness from simply a focused intention to deep transformative energetics of expanded awareness.  Meditation can take us from the outer world to the vast inner world of cosmic consciousness.

My own first experience with conscious meditation was a profound shift in my reality.  As I sat in a group of meditators, suddenly a column of white light struck my head and felt as if it parted my brain as it descended into my being.  I was blinded and was unable to move for some time.  I perceived a kind of mental message which said, “Where there is no resistance, there is no harm.”  This became one of the pillars of my teachings.
 
Meditation is Life, and Life is Meditation.
 
This means that we can access the meditative state at any moment, not just in the classic pose of meditation, but also anywhere and anytime; it can serve us in all the situations of our lives.  It is only a matter of the focus of conscious awareness, which opens the veil into the heightened octaves that meditation brings to us.  It is not a reality only entered by enlightened yogis, it belongs to you and me as well, as the birthright of all humans to seek and discover the “true self” through activation of holographic consciousness.

Many of us try too hard to meditate and feel the shadow of our judgment release the perpetually critical inner-chatter that further separates us from the freeing of the mind meditation brings.  The truth is that even a flicker of stillness enhances our well-being and connects us to the infinite energies that are always in attendance to our embodiment.  The meditative state is not caught in time; it is free of time and space.  All one needs to do is choose it!

We could trigger the meditative state even while working, moving, and performing any number of daily tasks, simply because we use it as the basis of all our awareness.  The inner quietness can become a point of center that supports all our actions.  To travel through life in these peaceful states, enhances intelligence and problem solving, as well as increasing intuitive spiritual capacities.  This is truly a joyful and powerful way to live our lives, and it can be effortless as we attune our awareness to these octaves of consciousness.

I once had a children’s summer school in Galisteo, New Mexico.  I would take the children out to meditate along a portal at the side of the building.  Inevitably, after a very short time, we would find the dogs and cats joining us.  During those moments, the adversarial relationship between their species no longer existed!  More than once, I looked up and saw over 50 birds perched on the telephone wires.  All the animals sat quietly as if they too were meditating or tapping into some field of energy that allowed us all to share consciousness.

“I am meditating.”

 I taught the children a simple technique for entering meditation.  It made it easier to bypass the mind chatter by programming the brain through verbal commands.  Accompanied by the snap of fingers, we would command the brain—“I am meditating,” and then follow this with a deep breath.  Breath always stills the mind and, in effect, is one of the best ways to enter or maintain the meditative state.  After taking the breath, the brain will slow down and enter the alpha pulse of meditation.  Clinically, the result of lowering brain waves from the faster, beta pulses of thought and action, to the slower alpha and theta pulses, produces profound relaxation, healing currents and expanded consciousness.  

Part of the gift of meditating is opening to receiving the divine energies that support our embodiment.  These energies lift us up and fill us, so we can become the givers.  This radiance and peace passes through the body bringing healing and nourishment to all levels.  Blockages are released through the flow of Prana, which supports the functioning of bodily systems and organs, as well as our beautiful Light Bodies.

The practice of Pranayama or breath, is one of the great keys to meditation and also to healing.  Pranayama brings us back to the basic essence of life and heals not only the cellular level, but the emotional and spiritual ones as well.  

There are many forms of meditation.  One of the most common forms is the classic yogic posture of sitting in meditation, placing the hands in Mudras, and allowing the breath to carry us deeper and deeper into the realms of cosmic essence.  
 
When I think of the word “yoga,” it is not the image of a body in a powerful asana that comes to mind, because yoga is a part of life in all its ramifications— it is the immediate sense of peace and freedom that permeates my being. The word Yoga reminds me to be in a meditative state, to breathe Prana, and to shape my own form in perfection and grace.

My favorite yogic focus is the combination of meditation accompanied by Mudras.  I use the Mudras every day within all my activities and conscious awareness, as well as in meditation.  Science has shown that hand-eye coordination is crucial to the development of the brain.  The fingertips and the hand hold the most nerve endings in the body, and this is exactly why Mudras are the most powerful conductors of energy through the Nadis and nervous system of the body.  As such, they are instruments of vitality, health, and higher vibrations.

In fact, a specific Mudra once saved my own life.  I use another to align and protect my heart.  My Higher Self gave me a Mudra to share with the world.  It is called, “Ascending Heart.”  It first came to me during a spontaneous state of Samadhi.

Ascending Heart begins in the usual prayer position with the fingertips and hands pressed together at the level of the heart between the breasts, along the conception vessel or central channel Nadi.  This placement is important because of the esoteric acupuncture point there, which is called the “yin meditation point. “  The fingertips point upward towards the head.  The Mudra takes up the space of the upper chest, which I call in my work, the “Higher Heart.”  This is the area of the spiritual heart and coincides with several acupuncture points referring to spiritual focus.  From there, one separates the palms, relaxing and rounding the fingertips so that they very lightly touch.  The thumbs now gently cross to give the image of the Ascending Heart.  The lower part of the two curves reminds me of two energies that flow upward together, reaching the pentacle of oneness.  The initial sensations of the Ascending Heart Mudra are elation, lightness and pure joy.

Yoga for me is a brilliant flow of cosmic light into all our subtle and physical bodies. There is the light of awareness that illuminates and dissolves illusions.  There are the many variations of the light spectrum that influence the endocrine system and the master glands.  There is illumination that radiates out of the light body, which informs us of the present state of consciousness within the Chakras and the Astral Body.  Above all, there is the Technology of Consciousness given to me by my Higher Self that teaches us how to use light for healing and peace: The Power of the Giver!

As even the Divine Source eternally evolves, Yoga is also evolving.  The spiral of evolution is bringing the practice of Yoga back into proximity of its original gift of illuminating cosmic truth and universal oneness.  This present ring of the spiral is like an ever-widening arch, whereby the potential is not only the enlightenment of the individual seeker, but the necessity to bring all of human consciousness into a free flowing oneness.  

Never before have we so needed to access the reality that “everything is connected to everything.”  The Karmic matrix is a multi-dimensional fabric into which all substance and non-substance are inextricably inter-woven.  Enlightenment is not merely a flicker of awareness, it calls forth its laws of action and reaction, wisdom in motion, and stillness in pulse.  Thus, the illusion of dualism, opposites, and separation are all dissolved into the ultimate one Soul, one Cosmos—that hurls the consciousness into the ebb and flow of all eternal evolution.

Consciousness creates thought, thought creates energy, energy creates motion, and motion creates evolution: The formless becomes form, which expresses potential and then returns to alter and impregnate the formless.  

What this means to us on a human level is that all the enlightenment we seek is within the essence of our consciousness, which is linked to the consciousness of all sentient beings—from whom we can find the reflection of our own enlightened reality.  

The practice of Yoga in Life is the true purpose of our embodiment—and embodiment is the gift of the Divine Source.