Yoga Cat, Shadow, appears to understand Cynthia's question, "What do I do with my eyes? Where should I look? We've never discussed it." Shadow, a fifteen pound Russian Blue, sits on the inside windowsill, a dark silhouette, settled, staring into the room, his spine drinking in trees outside the slowly warming glass. His huge eyes cast in half-light stare simply 'out'. He does not gaze specifically into the room. Nor does he examine furniture or my student or myself. Shadow is aware of students who all ask the same question when they are about to turn from hatha yoga, the exercise, to hatha yoga, the journey. This is the moment I wait for and I never discuss it before it's time - before the question is verbalized. "Where do I look while practicing asana?" is the all-important yoga query. Yoga Cat demonstrates his deep grasp of the situation by mushing himself into a fur ball and licking his paw. Clearly, it is a paw moment.
"Where you look, what you see, these elements are paramount to your yoga. However, your eyes become inconsequential. Asana practice is meditation. Multitudes of yoga sojourners throughout five thousand years have closed their eyes while others prefer practicing with eyes wide open. Some stare at blank walls, others at candles, still more lose themselves on a spot on the floor six feet in front of their knees. Great masters have studied toes, nose, and fingertips. It's all maya - illusion. And I don't mean to say it's not true; I mean to say it is incomplete. Sensing the world through maya is like thinking of your life as a small box while the universe awaits your true arrival. Where you look, what you see, this makes possible your conscious union, the yoking, the yoga of Atman - the finite, and Brahman - the infinite. Look in the right place, see the correct vision, and the finite and infinite dance an eternal mystical ballet of spirit. This is completion."
Furniture Leg Pads
Cynthia, dressed in loose cotton sweats with her brown hair pulled back by a band, sips from her water bottle. We have worked together for about three months. "Youngbear, what does it mean to be a mystic?"
"It means I don't ascribe to a religious, exoteric code stating that I must wait until I shed my body to enjoy being united as one in creative spirit. The mystical experience transcends humankind's misunderstanding of where spirit begins and ends and makes possible an esoteric life in spirit here and now. The mystical experience is one's arrival in the universe outside the box. But to accomplish the mystical yogic experience you must learn to use Brahman's eye; this is the third eye in the middle of your forehead. Brahman's eye is the eye you use when practicing asana; it is this eye that sees. Remaining focused on the vision of your third eye, your Brahman's eye, is where you look, and it dictates what you see during your asana meditation. Uniting with infinity means looking within because all energy is a single energy. This is why we begin our practice with the greeting, 'Namaste'. This greeting means, your energy and my energy as one.
Every breath is an act of refining prana - life force. See it with your third eye. Look within. Focus on the inhaled energy glowing bright golden-white. When you exhale, it is like blowing on a hot ember - the glow increases taking over your entire body; extending beyond the body because to inhale is to become one with the infinite and exhaling expands that relationship of uniting Atman and Brahman throughout the universe. You are Cynthia, but that is not all you are. If that is all you are, you're maya. So, that is not all you are. You are infinite. You are also drinking water during our session, and that's against the rules."
"We're not practicing - we're talking." Cynthia furrows her brow. "This is not exercise."
"You walk into the room, remove your shoes, and the meditation begins. It starts with the greeting, 'Namaste'. Then you inhale prana, refine prana, and envision a golden-white light. First is Tadasana, Mountain pose. When we do Tadasana, we do not stand with our arms hanging at our sides. We stand, feet together, the center of gravity over our heels and we slowly lift our arms in a wide angel's arc. As the arms lift we inhale, Brahman's eye sees the golden-white light of prana we are pulling from the universe outside of ourselves, and when the fingertips touch overhead we pause, holding our breath, 'seeing' our bodies flood with light. The fingertips separate, the arms slowly come down, we exhale and 'see' the ember glow intensely. Our arms now rest at our sides. In Tadasana we are microcosm and macrocosm, finite and infinite, Atman and Brahman. This is yoga, to yoke the finite and infinite, to become conscious of the unity of Atman and Brahman. Then we realize that to look within is to see everywhere. Sitting in pranayama - breathing exercise - is meditation. Moving with each asana becomes a joining now with the Supreme Godhead."
Shadow leaps off the sill and softly pads across the hardwood floor. Yoga Cat stops in front of Cynthia. He gazes outward again, however, we have established that he is actually looking inward. Without warning, a single gray leg shoots straight into the air over his head. Whatever Yoga Cat does next will be frightening, and Cynthia and I have decided that we will not notice. "Youngbear, how do I judge the depth of this mystical experience?"
"It's a matter of balance. When all the colors of the spectrum are balanced they achieve white. When you practice asana on your right, you practice it on your left, and front to back, and a contraction with a stretch. One day you find yourself walking down the street, and using your eyes you see 'things'- the relationships between molecules - energy differentiating itself. Simultaneously, using Brahman's eye, you see only non-differentiated energy - the many in the one, the one in the many. Incomplete truth - maya, exists side by side with complete truth - dharma. The finite and the infinite are one. They are two, and they are one."
Shadow, the Yoga Cat, now leads all three of us in a ten-breath extension of Downward Facing Dog. Lest one think that yoga is easier for cats, around breath five he discovers a pesky ear mite. However, he is focused on his inner light, and without missing a beat completes the last five breaths with three paws grounded and one busy. Namaste'.
END
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