PRACTICE

During a ritual action, the officiant assigns its fruits to Shiva, the action is then performed without a goal, karmanivedana. So is the practice of asanas and pranayamas: without a goal.

We constantly superimpose a mental diagram to the notion of our body. This diagram is a reaction built little by little from our childhood on. These clusters of tensions end up in shaping what we feel as our body. Such an atrophied and defensive sensation is supported by the image of our self, the notion of being a person, with its train of affirmative statements.

At first, the practice aims at becoming aware of the full extent of this bodily reactivity. Becoming aware of it, in an observation without expectation, initiates the deconditioning. When the contraction of a muscle has not yet overcome the center of a system, the knot can still open naturally, because then, tension still refers to its opposite: relaxation. But, if the contraction is deeper imprinted, it will be more difficult to loosen this fixation without using specific exercises intended, first, to make us aware of it, and then, to give room to this knot so that it becomes able to untie. Ultimately, the yoga posture will dismantle the need to centralize and will organize the release of the energy. Later on, in a body which has become vacant, practicing asanas will be a pure expression of the joy of being.

Each posture corresponds to an archetype of consciousness, a proper level of resonance. The ganas, in their infinite variety, symbolize these subterranean powers, of whom the practitioner becomes aware. A peculiar fondness for those beings of joy and their extraordinary representations in India, like at Badami or Chidambaram for instance, or in Nepal at Patan, will remain alive forever in the heart of the practitioner. The Islamic teaching, as transmitted by Ibn Arabi, clearly evokes the jinns as hidden energies of the All Almighty, even as inmost parts of man itself, jann. The beginning of the posture happens within meditation, pure observation. The posture, by its gestures, will bring into relation the various centers of the subtle body in a unique way, so that they vibrate the ones with the others, like a specific orchestra: a yantra. These places where energy gathers, opens out or moves, will become conscious. Each posture requires, not a concentration, but a proper awareness of some of those energy centers. When coming out of the posture, the accumulated energy will release into verticality, and this rising movement will burn our patterns of acquiring and knowledge.

Before one is able to do the major postures, seals of consciousness, one should first explore the bodily sensation, doing only halves or quarters of the posture, which will allow, without violating our physical limitations or creating discomfort, to discover areas of the body particularly overwhelmed by patterns of personality. One needs to invent many movements, not referenced in the shastras, depending on the specific condition of each one, in order to deepen the sensing of the body. Each person has created a body of defense suited to her survival. This is the reason why teaching yoga is only possible within the frame of a close relationship. Regarding yoga as a spare-time activity, entertainment, personal development offered by various associations, schools or institutes, the apparition of yoga teachers, the distribution of diplomas by many ashrams, the research institutes about the benefits of yoga, certainly are the biggest spiritual disinformation of the twentieth century. The one who helps to become aware of the conditioning will direct awareness precisely toward the areas from which awareness is absent. It is only after several years of a one-on-one teaching that a collective practice is justified. At this time, there will be enough availability in the practitioner to integrate the more general suggestions of the teacher. In this case, the meditative environment provided by the collective practice supports the practitioner's ability to offer his own practice: oblation of the body, of what is sensed, of the breath, to consciousness.

As in a concert, where all the various ways of listening finally merge into a single one, the collective meditative practice sets availability as the heart of the reunion. The steps of the technical practice rely on the triad: action, dynamics, knowledge. Like at Chidambaram, where Nataraja symbolizes the knowledge hidden in the heart, dakaravidyapasana, each Hindu temple emanates from a secret disposition, yantra-pashtara, origin of duality. When performing the circumambulation, pradakshina, the pilgrim merges again into non-duality by reabsorbing the manifested aspects of life. The yantra is then revealed as consciousness, the dot beyond space and time, bindu. Similarly, the asana is consciousness, expression of multiplicity, and the resorption of its principles in the heart becomes the ritual act of celebration, the inner pilgrimage.