For V. · 2 December 2008
Shoulda known it would come around to the master key eventually. It took almost two years, which is about right. But wow. What am I doing? Stop me now?
This’ll stop everything. Go grab a tennis ball, right now, and sit on it. Right in your perineum in the Janu-C style. Keep sitting on it.
Distracted yet?
Ok, see ya.
Hahahahahaa. It’s ok. Everything is ok. What does it take from the inside to be fully normal and ok with this? Keep sitting.
Talking about the MB is like talking about kundalini. You can answer the questions on several dimensions—physical, subtle and energetic, psyche/consciousness. And no matter what you say you feel like you might be delusional or at least inviting scary visits from the secret order of the Knights Patanjali, bound by blood and oath to guard the secrets of the lineage for eternity. Either that or you just can’t get the young Wittgenstein off your back: whereof though canst not speak thereof ye shall pass over in silence.
Note that in these hilarious conferences that yoga teachers give, answers to questions of MB and kundini are usually one-dimensional. Rarely integrated. So in the Yoga Matrix, RF says kundalini is the opening of the heart, but does not treat physical and subtle body aspects. (Maybe some people experience brilliant heart opening without light explosions, or chase monkeylike after light explosions but never learn to love: in part the non-integration of these subjects may result from the fact that our own experiences are specific and diverse. Right on.) In most ashtanga discussions MB is treated as either kind of mystical (an interpretation which either irritates you because it’s sort of BS, or has you intrigued if not obsessed), or simply as a muscle contraction, but rarely as play of mind and body. And hell, what I’ve been saying about the MB is specified to interpersonal relationships—o mejor dicho, to its effects on “transpersonal” awareness?—and that is even another aspect of the jewel. I’ll follow up V’s question about this interpersonal aspect to try to keep myself honest, but should say I’m not good at discussing the practical aspects. Many ashtangis are not good at this. Susananda is, though. Maybe a combination of personal experimentation/practice and reading clear descriptions is the best way to play with finding the MB. I don’t know though. I’ve never tried to teach it. Sorry, secret Illuminati knights; I’ll be silent after this. You don’t need to send out the assassins or anything. We're just sitting on fuzzy yellow bouncy balls. It's nothing.
For me there are two reasons the MB is in play in this specific situation. It keeps my shit together. And it makes me fearless.
First is just this aforementioned groundedness, specifically the ways this plays in relationships. Some Vipassana teachers instruct people to find a place in the body to "ground the awareness" whenever they're speaking and listening in conversation. The teaching is usually to select the place one feels MOST at home, most connected and secure. After people investigate and try different things, they often settle on the feet or chest as their home base. From that point forward, cultivating an awareness of that place amid relating with others is a practice—a practice meant to keep one from getting caught up in drama in a way that leads to abandonment of one’s moral precepts (in Vipassana, that would be right intention, right speech, and so on along the Noble Eightfold Path.). So here, being in the body shapes experience, providing space for specifically moral grounding. But that’s built on something more basic (and sort of brilliant): an always-peripherally-present technique for self-awareness and being in the moment.
I take the Vipassana teaching as suggestive in two ways. First, grounding awareness in the body may or may not be coupled with Theravada social morality. I think it’s nice if it can be, and I like the openness and personal responsibility vibe of the Eightfold path. But the yamas, also precepts for virtuous relationships, are good for that too. I dunno. You actually have to study (horrors) and be reflective and (if you’re me) get some outside advice to figure out what social virtues you need to practice. It’s all grounded in self-awareness and the MB doesn’t care what operating system you choose. Though godhelpyou if you go with Vista (i.e. clunky, narcissistic New Age “ethics”).
Something more interesting I see in this Vipassana teaching is the recognition that oscillating between interaction and specified body awareness creates a certain kind of mental state. Maybe it puts a theta wave into your otherwise excited beta state. Who knows. Experiment with it.
Meantime, what if your home base could be not merely the feet but the pelvic floor—a place in the apparently physical body that is directly responsive to your breath and awareness, that doesn’t even really exist for you without a bit of energetic contraction. The pelvic floor isn’t thoroughly physical, and this is why the purely material discussions of it are so unsatisfying and invite re-mystification. When you dwell there, all this useful distinguishing we do of mind and body or of physical/subtle/causal starts to get undermined!
It’s a physical/subtle/causal space, but only if you let it be. Some people experience it as just physical or just breath or just “transcendent.” That is interesting too. No matter what, taking the awareness to this space will probably induce a light trance. You may only notice if you already know your own mind quite well, and can detect when parts of it are slowing down. (Being a reflective person doesn’t mean you know your own mind: you have to meditate to learn to distinguish and deepen interior states). I don’t know why it works this way—why lightly engaging the MB would shift my consciousness. It actually makes no sense to me at all. But for us 21st century humans, it is nice—and useful in the 7th series, which is family relationships—to have a constant inner mala of light trance to course through the tide of our collective ADD.
So the last thing, fearlessness. Intestinal fortitude. In my case, most of the way I relate to my family would remain in shadow if I hadn’t started becoming self-possessed in the lower body. I have this difficult inheritance, a big Christian Fundamentalist family. If a belief system would lead you to turn on your own young, perhaps it’s tragically flawed, not just old-fashioned. I’ve come out pretty easily for a lot of funny and weirdly interesting reasons I’m not allowed to discuss, but in general Christian Fundamentalist culture has disfigured itself in its fight against modern society. You think I was joking about the no-masturbation contracts? Anyway, like I said before, it has turned itself into a kind of “disease” of the lower chakras, a culture organized around the control of women’s sexuality and creativity. Members, and women especially, are systematically taught to fear everything that would fall in the “chastity belt” region. You don’t feel this area, don’t speak of it except for with a vague indication to “down there,” don’t look at it, and definitely don’t ground your awareness there.
Seriously, it is so weird to live in a world in which the women cannot even swivel their hips. And no wonder all the altos in the church choir get converted (as I was) to airy Soprano II: easier to rely only on the diaphragm (not the nether guts) if you don’t have to sing the low notes. I could go on, but this is getting too anthropological even for me. Suffice it to say that being in possession of the lower chakras—whatever that may mean practically, psychologically, interpersonally, whatever—can make for a major advantage in this crowd. They’re running on five cylinders; I’m running on seven. Is that unfair? Eh. We all play dirty sometimes.
Ok, enough. I see from my loquacity that this is the tip of some iceberg. Is it time for icebergs to melt…? For my part, I’m going to shut up now before this turns in to the MB blog. Horrors. So much for all the hard spook-work that’s been done over millennia to keep this stuff esoteric. God. Maybe this is the apocalypse after all.
Posted by (0v0)
Categories: beta state
, esoteric shit
, having a body
, integration
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Your last couple of posts remind me of sax solo’s. Sonny or Dex with a hefty dose of Trane. Munching over a theme going at it this way then that teasing it, worrying it, hitting a rich vein, soaring, chucking in a couple of cute unexpected quotes or rather hints at other melodies, chord sequences, structures, contexts. That’s Sonny, but at times deep, painful resonant like Trane. Yet always that seductive surface lightness of Dexter. Your flying, Still mulling over a post from a couple of days ago and you hit us with this. Can you do ‘Round Midnight next? Love the MB as ground of awareness in Vipassana, must try that.
Posted by: grimmly · Dec 3, 12:45 AM · #
In your last post you seem to be presenting MB as a causea sui “Anyone can hold an unmoved mover in the belly root, can keep space with that, can begin and end all action from that. Om tat sat.” Martin has issues with A’s first cause, figures it’s a god we cant dance to, can’t have a close relationship with, the over-defining makes us more removed. He’s drawn to the east the lack of causa sui in Buddhism and Tao which perhaps allows a closer relationship with the divine because of this . My point…I’ve just drafted a post on bandha where I bracket Bandhas and was mulling over the idea of bracketing that allows us to focus on something without considering whether it exists which seems to be what your doing in this post when you use MB in Vipassana (love that) “It’s a physical/subtle/causal space, but only if you let it be” you then mention breath (resonates with your earlier spirituality posts) Perhaps this is a god we CAN dance to. So is there a contradiction or an unlayering. are you going to take the Whitman 5th and embrace all contradiction.
Posted by: grimmly · Dec 3, 01:39 AM · #
Ooooh, Grimmly, I like the first comparison. Totally.
Posted by: LI Ashtangini · Dec 3, 05:42 AM · #
Late for practice, but thanks you two. That’s amusing.
More later Grim, but it is both phenomenological an non phenomenological. Also, maybe causa sui is less world-outside-the-world than we assume? Whitman fifth!
Acting as if, very good!!!! Looking forward to your thoughts on this. But maybe kind of sketchy if you aren’t Heideggerian, because you can act as if ANYTHING, right? Might get yourself killed, acting as if you can fly. Then we’ve gone down the Carlos Castaneda rabbit hole! (He wrote the first Don Juan in the basement directly under my office, doing an Anthro PhD at a certain UC.)
P.S. Why are three a bunch of facebook hits to this post? That is fine, I’m not going to try to figure it out, but please know I am NOT out as a blogger on the FB. I mean, do my colleagues need to know about any of this this? :) SCARY THOUGHT, for now.
Om Vande gurunam… late for a very important date… caranaravinde…
Posted by: (0v0) · Dec 3, 06:16 AM · #
Second that on loving the jazz comparison, and also “taking the Whitman 5th” is marvelous.
When Larry did a session with us on bandhas, he said that the MB was the power center and that we were “sitting on our power.” Our homework on MB was to approach some spooky task or effort or conversation, something with some spook factor in it, and think about the MB as we confronted the situation, and see how/if the power changed or if our focus moved or if we were able to achieve.
Predictably, I tried this out in a climbing gym, and it worked. The attention dive toward the center either gets under or outruns fear, and also some centering occurs; “finding the target” comes to mind, from archery.
Trying to deal with the MB, to “think” from there, if you will, regularly summons for me an image of a stream, which is “my” actuality, under-running my ego-dance on top of it, as I make shapes and speak words and so forth. The dissertation’s patience-building qualities worked in the same way, and asana practice has the same aspect: the flexibility has virtually nothing to do with the “actual” (again, if you will) practice.
Posted by: patrick · Dec 3, 06:19 AM · #
I just read the title….V, you got your own post!
Posted by: LI Ashtangini · Dec 3, 08:42 AM · #
I think I would feel like a hen trying to hatch an egg, sitting on a tennis ball. And also I’m not interested in relationships that involve that area of my body, ie sexual. Still… I’ve gotta try it. Perhaps I will make clucking noises.
Posted by: boodiba · Dec 3, 08:44 AM · #
This is really very well done. I am actually a heavier user of MB outside of asana practice these days. I use it as a control/grounding tool for all high-stakes presentations and for greater vocal control. MB really is a wonderful thing – I even try to teach the gross form (tighten anus!) to my son for karate sparring.
Posted by: cody · Dec 3, 08:54 AM · #
hi (0v0)
sitting on a tennis ball is actually a therapeutic treatment for men for prostate enlargement. it’s why men benefit from doing Janus-C. i’ve incorporated daily pelvic floor exercises that wake up the MB and UB prior to practice. it’s really beneficial. reading the comments, i realize there are useful applications such as demanding presentations, as Cody points out.
hugs
Arturo
Posted by: arturo · Dec 3, 09:52 AM · #
Must it be a tennis ball or would racquetballs substitute acceptably well?
Cody, I’ve never really had opportunities to listen to parents’ sidelines cheers but I’m going to make an effort to do so now that you’ve pointed out that you’ve been teaching your son to squeeze his anus for karate. I can’t wait to hear a sports parent shout something like: “Squeeze your anus, son, squeeze your ANUS!”
Posted by: Carl · Dec 3, 10:55 AM · #
Oh my god Carl.
There needs to me a scripture or koan on the same-but-different quality of MB vis-a-vis the anus and pee muscles. On finding the razor’s edge betwixt them. I’m thinking of Gospel of Matthew 7:14 but that’s way too creepy.
The thing is that this is all sexual and SO NOT SEXUAL. Is Janu-C sexual? Yes, at first (woe betide the dumbass yoga “teacher” who tries to adjust the student in Janu-C and thus becomes the object of the weirdest projections of all). But then, after you practice a few years, it’s exactly as sexual and nonsexual as Janu-B or whatever else.
I’m thinking every “chakra” has a sexual aspect: creativity, the heart, self expression, intelligence, spirit. (Hell, in academia, sexual attraction is almost entirely focused on critical intelligence and creative drive, or the third and fifth nodes.) In the same way, don’t the roots have much about them that’s nonsexual?
Tennis ball practice is totally distracting at first, but then later, it’s not. The everything-is-sexual interp of experience passes.
(Maybe part of the reason Christian Fundamentalism is so unable to deal with the body roots is that it sees them as only sexual, not an aspect of everything.)
Posted by: (0v0) · Dec 3, 11:24 AM · #
I think I’ve got my Janus B & C very confused right now.
Posted by: V · Dec 3, 11:46 AM · #
Oh yes! My mistake. You know what I meant.
Posted by: (0v0) · Dec 3, 11:58 AM · #
hi again (0v0)
are you also going to talk about uddiyana bandha? because i would have this to contribute, adapted from responses by students in science exams: “the uddiyana bandha is located in the abominable cavity, which contains the bowels, of which there are five – a, e, i, o, and u.”
cheers, Arturo
Posted by: arturo · Dec 3, 11:58 AM · #
(V. sorry, I messed up – I meant Janus B is recommended for men with prostate problems.) Now I’ll shut up. “Y’all have a nice day now, y’a heah?”
Posted by: arturo · Dec 3, 12:04 PM · #
I like the idea of the connection between MB and fearlessness. I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but when I was learning the first part of Intermediate, I spent months in a general terrified state. Not scared of practice, but of everything and anything.
Also, if I had to choose a “home base” for my body, it would be my lower abdominal area. That’s what feels right, and yet it’s the part of my body that gives me the most physical grief, monthly without fail.
Lastly, the thing with MB is that I find it really difficult to ascertain what effects we can attribute to it. People say “use your MB for years and X, Y and Z will happen” and I can’t help but wonder, how do you know it was MB who facilitated them? Couldn’t it have been just an age thing? How do you prove causality instead of coincidence?
Oh, and thanks :-)
Posted by: V · Dec 3, 12:18 PM · #
That’s fascinating about the terror. Good for you for moving through the valley of shadow.
About proving causality, I don’t know.
You’re right though. In ashtanga, referring to the MB is sometimes a way of blowing someone off, or just an indication of total ignorance.
Remember that enraged man on the EZBoard who used to screech at everyone who asked about pickups and lifts “MULA BANDHA!!!!!” Same dude who would squeal at any second-guessing of the guru, “How dare you question his EXPERIENCE???”
I bet his pickups sucked. Maybe he’s since found his MB though.
Posted by: (0v0) · Dec 3, 12:35 PM · #
Carl, hilarious.
Posted by: LI Ashtangini · Dec 3, 12:49 PM · #
LOL, no, who was that?
Posted by: V · Dec 3, 12:59 PM · #
God knows. A severe case of SEAS, Suddenly Exploding Ashtangi Syndrome, poor fellow.
Posted by: (0v0) · Dec 3, 01:27 PM · #
acronyms: MAPS – mobile ashtanga pain syndrome.
112. One should known that as real posture in which the meditation on Brahman flows spontaneously and unceasingly, and not any other that destroys one’s happiness.
113. That which is well known as the origin of all beings and the support of the whole universe, which is immutable and in which the enlightened are completely merged … that alone is known as Siddhasana (eternal Brahman).
114. That (Brahman) which is the root of all existence and on which the restraint of the mind is based is called the restraining root (Mulabandha) which should always be adopted since it is fit for Raja-yogins.
Posted by: e&sj · Dec 3, 03:51 PM · #
I second the MB for high-stakes presentations suggestion. Also good for high-emotion personal interactions.
Posted by: karen · Dec 4, 04:04 AM · #
I heart mulabandha. Even when it’s just called the pelvic floor. I don’t get the anus much involved, though…
Carl, coffee almost came out of my nose when I read the bit about “SON! Tighten your ANUS!”
Posted by: joy · Dec 7, 06:41 AM · #
Loved this post! Yeah. I am really into mula bandha right now. Tried to teach it properly last week too.. will try to find some time this week to blog the practical side!
I like the idea of it being kind of where mind and body meet. It definitely puts me in some kind of zone.
Posted by: susananda · Dec 7, 02:59 PM · #
Oh, look what I found in looking up E&SJ’s reference. This.
Really nice set of references and discussions there. I’ll have to read it in a bit. But Bandhas as “floodgates of love”? Oh god. If I ever start talking like that, please stop me. Would it work as title of a more esoteric ashtanga workshop? Something tells me it would not, um, fly.
Oh speaking of finding the transcendent in your bum, I was adjusting the Editor’s baddha konasana the other day and noticed a tension in the right flank. “That’s your piriformis,” I said. “Yes, my butt,” he replied, “those are my pure forms.”
Platonist ashtanga puns. The punhunting never stop around here. Godhelpme.
Owl be back…
Posted by: (0v0) · Dec 7, 06:32 PM · #
With the fabulous moolah?
Posted by: meniscusmerangue · Dec 8, 02:27 AM · #
Escape from Owlcatraz?
Posted by: (0v0) · Dec 9, 10:10 AM · #
(Just call me Owl Capone.)
Posted by: (0v0) · Dec 9, 10:10 AM · #