Saturday, April 13, 2013
Body Mudras (Sacred Postures)
From Dorothy's Secret Diary--Saturday, April 13, 2013
Note: Gerda's story will continue on Monday. I wanted to write this personal account up while it was still fresh, and, though I usually don't post this blog on the weekends, I decided to make an exception today.
(It is called "secret" because not many will read it, and fewer understand it. I want to keep a private record of certain inner experiences to demonstrate how the K. process continues indefinitely, always producing new ways of feeling, new levels of consciousness. I have described several of these in earlier posts. Here is the latest, from this morning's practice session.
I have decided to go ahead and post these entries because others may be interested in what can develop after many years of K. practice, and also because I myself want to keep such a record.
If anyone has heard of something similar to this, I would appreciate hearing about it. As always, I seem to be a "solitary practitioner" experiencing responses others are not aware of.)
I am now in the thirty-second year of my process. I have explored such modalities as yoga, breathing, intense listening to music, slow movement, and aromatherapy (among others.) But today I had yet another new experience, one I had not anticipated nor planned.
Of late I have experienced significant pain in my neck and upper back. My beloved physical therapist has given me some very simple exercises to alleviate the problem--very slow, very gentle movements of the neck and arms to stretch the muscles and release the tension. I have tried this exercise a few mornings and it seemed to help.
Then a few mornings ago, after I had experienced my rapturous "aromatherapy" process (described elsewhere) I performed these gentle exercises and noted as I did so that exquisite sensations were flowing up my spine and into my neck and upper back. I was delighted with such sensuous pleasure (though very soft) but had no expectation that it would ever repeat. And indeed, my back felt better that day.
But today's experience was different yet. As I did each "stretch" I felt the sweet energies flow upward and into my body, certainly opening the first and second chakras, then streaming elsewhere with the various moves. My teacher had said that the purpose was to contact the energies rather than simply stretch the muscles during this exercise and so I did.
For me, each posture was like a body mudra, each position producing exquisite pleasure, so much so I hated to quit. But quit I did after some 15-20 minutes, perhaps the limit of rapture for me.
Soon I walked several blocks to do errands, then carried a small load home. My back hurt all the way. I can't seem to coordinate the spiritual and the physical sensations, but am grateful for what comes, and wonder if anyone else has such experiences.
P. S. I looked up "body mudras" on google and discovered that, for the most part, the pictures they printed were of athletically inclined young people doing what I would describe as acrobatics. That may be all to the good for them, but I am trying to describe something almost directly the opposite--that is, very gentle, very easy poses that anyone who can stand or sit on a chair can do. Again, it is not the movements, but the energetic flow that is important. Maybe these movements should be called "Subtle subtle yoga." The picture below is not part of my series, but the ease and simplicity of the posture suggest a bit of the idea.
P. S. I should add that when I performed the same exercises on the following two days, nothing like the above took place. Apparently the energetic response depends on something we ourselves do not control--perhaps the company we have been keeping the day before. Do we unconsciously pick up energies from others, which then manifest as bliss next day?
Note: Gerda's story will continue on Monday. I wanted to write this personal account up while it was still fresh, and, though I usually don't post this blog on the weekends, I decided to make an exception today.
(It is called "secret" because not many will read it, and fewer understand it. I want to keep a private record of certain inner experiences to demonstrate how the K. process continues indefinitely, always producing new ways of feeling, new levels of consciousness. I have described several of these in earlier posts. Here is the latest, from this morning's practice session.
I have decided to go ahead and post these entries because others may be interested in what can develop after many years of K. practice, and also because I myself want to keep such a record.
If anyone has heard of something similar to this, I would appreciate hearing about it. As always, I seem to be a "solitary practitioner" experiencing responses others are not aware of.)
I am now in the thirty-second year of my process. I have explored such modalities as yoga, breathing, intense listening to music, slow movement, and aromatherapy (among others.) But today I had yet another new experience, one I had not anticipated nor planned.
Of late I have experienced significant pain in my neck and upper back. My beloved physical therapist has given me some very simple exercises to alleviate the problem--very slow, very gentle movements of the neck and arms to stretch the muscles and release the tension. I have tried this exercise a few mornings and it seemed to help.
Then a few mornings ago, after I had experienced my rapturous "aromatherapy" process (described elsewhere) I performed these gentle exercises and noted as I did so that exquisite sensations were flowing up my spine and into my neck and upper back. I was delighted with such sensuous pleasure (though very soft) but had no expectation that it would ever repeat. And indeed, my back felt better that day.
But today's experience was different yet. As I did each "stretch" I felt the sweet energies flow upward and into my body, certainly opening the first and second chakras, then streaming elsewhere with the various moves. My teacher had said that the purpose was to contact the energies rather than simply stretch the muscles during this exercise and so I did.
For me, each posture was like a body mudra, each position producing exquisite pleasure, so much so I hated to quit. But quit I did after some 15-20 minutes, perhaps the limit of rapture for me.
Soon I walked several blocks to do errands, then carried a small load home. My back hurt all the way. I can't seem to coordinate the spiritual and the physical sensations, but am grateful for what comes, and wonder if anyone else has such experiences.
P. S. I looked up "body mudras" on google and discovered that, for the most part, the pictures they printed were of athletically inclined young people doing what I would describe as acrobatics. That may be all to the good for them, but I am trying to describe something almost directly the opposite--that is, very gentle, very easy poses that anyone who can stand or sit on a chair can do. Again, it is not the movements, but the energetic flow that is important. Maybe these movements should be called "Subtle subtle yoga." The picture below is not part of my series, but the ease and simplicity of the posture suggest a bit of the idea.
P. S. I should add that when I performed the same exercises on the following two days, nothing like the above took place. Apparently the energetic response depends on something we ourselves do not control--perhaps the company we have been keeping the day before. Do we unconsciously pick up energies from others, which then manifest as bliss next day?
