Ch. 3 • The Path Forward might just be Backwards: The True Dynamism of a Resilient Yoga Practice
Ch. 3 • The Path Forward might just be Backwards: The True Dynamism of a Resilient Yoga Practice
Melting & Growing through AUM & Tara Mantra
The image of Tara is particularly unique in that she has one foot on her meditation cushion and one foot stepping into the world. This symbolizes her ability to stay in touch with her inner reality as she moves through her outer reality, the key to cultivating spiritual resilience as this training’s focal point. The image of Tara shows both of these realities in action at the same time. You could imagine the image like a subtle GIF, as she goes from seated to moving out to sitting back down. It's as if she lives in the realm of melting and growing that we are practicing with in this chapter. She lives in that dynamism of Cid Rasa, the flowing essence of awareness, that melts like sap into infinite potential, only to grow into this or that manifestation. Whether that manifestation serves our growth or serves our patterns depends on whether those actions come from a place of consciousness and surrender or the knee-jerk response of our habitual patterns. The only way to know is to melt again inside, get back in touch, and then grow again. As the Tantrasadbhava teaches, “This goddess cannot be awakened with force. She can only be awakened by (nāda) supreme I consciousness filled with supreme awareness. To awaken her, the yogī has to churn their point of one-pointedness in the heart, without break, again and again.” This is to say that awakening our spiritual potential is a gentle practice that cannot be forced but can only be grown one small spark of awareness at a time. Melting and growing, melting and growing, again and again is the path of resilience.
Similar to our movement practice, mantra gives us the oppportunity to melt our habitual thought patterns and grow them more consciously. The Vijnana Bhairava specifically describes the practice of AUM as a mantra to teach us how to melt into our internal space. There are three distinct sounds in the AUM. "A" is an "ahhh" sound that begins in the back of the throat, "AU" is the "ooo" sound that vibrates at the top of the palate, and "M" is the "mmm" sound in the lips. But there is also a fourth sound in AUM, the silent last syllable of Shiva that occurs after the AUM sound. As Swami Lakshmanjoo teaches from the Vijnana Bhairava, “When you recite it, in the end, you must concentrate on the voidness of that sound, where this sound merged in the end. The sound is finished afterwards, and there you must concentrate, there you must contemplate…and, by that supreme awareness of voidness, [the yogi] enters in the transcendental void state of Śiva.” (Dharana 16)
Mantra helps us melt, and then re-grow more consciously again and a gain. As we feel in our body, the void that we release into is not empty, put a space of infinite potential, and according to the Vijnana Bhairava, it is actually the transcendental state of Shiva, a space of inner fullness that is devoid of outer support. We let ourselves surrender into this transcendental space, and then we stay connected to that space a little more as we repeat the sound again. Like Tara, we are in our heart and in our life at the same time, going back and forth from the cushion to our lives. Eventually we may be able to feel the inner space as we utter the mantra externally. As Swami Lakshmanjoo continues in the Dharana, “You can utter words, you can utter letters, but you can’t utter voidness. You have to feel voidness. So, uccāra is here a feeling, not an uttering…That is called ṛtaṁbharā prajñā. It is the feeling of prajñā (wisdom), it is not the feeling of the senses.”
Mantra gives us this opportunity to try this hundreds or thousands of time when we sit to meditate. Tara is a particularly helpful deity in helping us discover this unique inner and outer dynamism because she is able to manifest in so many different forms. She can melt and grow into anything a situation may require. There are actually 21 different forms of Tara that are used for spiritual practice, ranging from peaceful and benevolent, to stern or quite fierce. Whatever struggle your life presents you, there’s a Tara for that. These forms are commonly listed in a traditional practice called the "Praises to the Twenty-One Taras,” which Faith Stone and Swami RudraniMa teach on a regular basis in Shambhavananda Yoga. Here are brief descriptions of each form:
Tara Nyurma Pamo (Swift and Heroic Tara): Known for her swiftness in dispelling fears and obstacles.
Tara Zhen Migyalma (Victorious Over the Three Worlds Tara): Victorious over the fears and obstacles of the three realms of existence.
Tara Jigje Chenmo (The Great Terrifying One): Destroys delusions and demons with her wrathful energy.
Tara Shiwé Nyenma (Pacifying Tara): Calms disputes and pacifies negative energies.
Tara Serdok Chen (The Tara of Golden Colored Avalokiteshvara): Embodies the golden light of compassion.
Tara Riging Selma (The Clear-Sighted Tara): Helps to see clearly and overcome ignorance.
Tara Sengdeng Nagchi (Tara of the Blue Dragon Forest): Provides protection and strength.
Tara Jigten Sumle Gyalma (The Triumphant One): Victorious over all dangers and hindrances.
Tara Mitub Tsan (The Invincible Heroine): Protects from inner and outer harm.
Tara Zhital Tsal (The Most Peaceful and Powerful): Calms the mind and offers inner peace.
Tara Drolma Nyimalé (Savior from Suffering and Hardship): Offers liberation from suffering and difficult situations.
Tara Kurukulle (Tara of Enchantment): Attracts favorable conditions and people.
Tara Tashi Donje (The Auspicious One): Brings about auspicious conditions and good fortune.
Tara Manjushri (Tara of Wisdom): Embodies wisdom and insight, akin to Manjushri.
Tara Sengdeng Nagchi (Tara of the Lion’s Roar): Her lion's roar dispels all fears and negativities.
Tara Rinchen Trengwa (Tara of the Precious Garland): Symbolizes spiritual accomplishments and merit.
Tara Rabzhima (The Most Peaceful Tara): Embodies ultimate tranquility and peace.
Tara Ralpay Gönma (The Tara with a Flowing Hair Ornament): Represents vitality and the flow of spiritual energy.
Tara Tronyer Chen (The Fierce Tara): Wrathful in eliminating obstacles and harm.
Tara Jigje Chenmo (The Great Fearsome One): Overcomes great fears and destructive emotions.
Tara Khadiravani (Tara of the Acacia Forest): Nurtures and protects like the acacia forest.
While it is inspiring to study a particular form of Tara when your life calls for it, it is also practical to invest one’s energy in her foundational form and mantra. As always, the practices we do in the Shambhavananda Tradition are not simply practices from a book, but practiced that have been empowered through a lineage. Faith Stone is one of the foremost producers of sacred art of Tara on the planet, and has been empowered to do her practices by the two different Tibetan lineages. She teaches a weekly class on the the many forms of the deity, as well as carves, prints and paints her form to share with the world. Tara practices done in the Shambhavananda school are therefore ‘charged up’ so to speak, with the Shakti of such a great devotee of Tara. You can quite literally jump on the train as you do the Tara mantra with us in our training, and bring that new connection to your life and cushion. To inspire your work, you may want to check out Faith Stone’s Etsy shop, which is full of hand carved and painted images of Tara. 100% of the proceeds from the sales go to directly to the ashram.
The Tara mantra practiced in the Shambhavananda school is “Om Tare Tu Tare Ture Svaha” can be translated as "Om, O Tara, I call upon you to liberate me from fears, grant me swift spiritual realization, and accept this offering.” This mantra is a call for Tara's compassionate intervention to remove obstacles and fears, and to grant spiritual blessings and swift liberation. As Faith Stone often teaches, when you call for Tara, like calling anyone on the phone, be ready for her to pick up the phone, be ready for the intervention in your life. She is ready to help, and we have to be ready to receive it.
Melting & Growing Your Breath: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of Your Breath through Backwards Breathing
We have explored the concept of melting and growing, both through our physical asanas on the mat and through mantras on our cushion. What we discover in the practice of melting and growing is that the act of releasing a practice is just as important as the practice itself. We tend to habitually crystallize in our lives, attaching to the comings and goings of our mind more than we might realize. Therefore, applying ourselves fully to our practice and then letting it go proves to be a very effective method for growth.
In our bodies, the melting and growing process occurs on an even more subtle level—22,000 times a day—in the form of our breath. Every inhale and exhale takes us through this cyclical process, and together, they sustain our life. We all want to pay more attention to our breath, to experience our natural breath flow, but as anyone who has set that intention before a yoga class knows, it’s hard to focus on the breath— its subtle and its always moving. And even when we do focus on our breath, its hard not to be too willful with it— directing it instead of being directed by it.
For example, if you were to describe the inhale, you might associate it with a power stance, a way of expressing yourself positively. If we were to sweep our arms up, we would almost unconsciously inhale, and as we fold forward without a thought or feeling, we would exhale. We tend to categorize the exhale as calming, relaxing, or even sleepy—a way of letting go. And though these actions are correct in their own way, we see that our relationship with the breath is much like our relationship with our bodies. We tend to fixate on certain crystallized patterns and struggle to allow those patterns to reform in organic ways that better serve us in the present.
Today’s lesson seeks to flip our usual script with the breath so that we can begin to feel it again from the inside out and allow it to participate more freely in our experience of our yoga practice. Because as we will see in the following quote, the ancient texts describe the inhale and exhale differently from our baseline assumptions, opening the door to new possibilities of working with and becoming aware of our breath.
Verse 7.25 of the Svachanda Tantra states: “Shiva is manifested first in the initial movement of that breath, which is only filled with life. And then in breathing in and breathing out (prāṇa), which in inhaling, destroys, and in exhaling, creates.”
Take a moment to consider the ramifications of this statement: the inhale destroys, dissolves, releases, and the exhale creates, uplifts, supports, etc. This is truly the opposite of our common notions of the breath. What we find is that both approaches are best, and that this more uncommon approach might be just what you need to re-discover your connection to the breath, both on a physical and subtle level.
And just to take a moment to consider the sense this makes—when we inhale, we are drawing our awareness within us, away from the external world. You could say this action ‘dissolves the external world.’ Also, the oxygen in our inhale is what gives our cells the ability to break down food in order to get the energy we need to survive—oxygen is actually a very corrosive element, turning metal into rust and eventually dust. So the inhale has a lot of dissolving and positively destructive potential, which gives life.
And when we take a moment to consider the exhale, we see that it is very creative. Sure, you might exhale when you are tired and sitting down after a long day, and yes, a long exhale does calm the nervous system—but what does a calm nervous system do for us? It rebuilds us from the inside out. Longer exhales create the possibility of better oxygenation of our blood by balancing out its chemistry. We lift, push, press, and pull with our exhales as we change and create our external worlds. We speak and sing with our exhales as we express ourselves creatively. This is all to say that the exhale creates.
Initially, we can focus simply on the fact that these descriptions might be the opposite of our normal understandings of the breath. In and of itself, this switch allows us to hold space for a new experience of our breath in our postures, to let go of our unconscious pathways of the breath and feel our breath again from the inside out. Let’s try it for a moment in cat-cow, just to feel the intuitive potential of it. What do you notice?
Physiologically, reversing our breathing can help us pay more attention to the eccentric phases of muscles, which, as the foremost authority on the anatomy of walking, James Earls, says, is the more important phase of a muscle's function: “During my workshops I often spend time explaining the unacknowledged prejudices that we absorb from standard anatomy texts… The reality is that muscles react in the presence of gravity, momentum, and ground reaction forces during normal function. A simple guideline that can often be applied for real-life function is to simply reverse the action listed by the anatomy text to get the actual function of a muscle—its eccentric action.”
The eccentric phase of our muscles is its more functional phase. We might lift our water bottle up to take a sip, but we are often holding or carrying that water bottle, as well as setting it down, which is more a function of the eccentric phase of the muscle. Reversing our breathing tends to help us feel this often overlooked, yet more important phase of our muscle movement.
For example, we all know how to flex our bicep—when you do it, you hardly feel or notice a thing. This flexing of the elbow is literally the primary example of showing how we concentrically engage a muscle, in this case, the bicep. It is so common to associate a muscle with its concentric contraction that we almost do it automatically—meaning we don’t feel much when we focus on the concentric contraction of a muscle. And because we don’t feel much, we don’t move with as much awareness. So go ahead and straighten your arm again, and instead of focusing on concentrically contracting your bicep, look at your tricep, and eccentrically contract it, meaning lengthen it, in order to flex the elbow. Was there not more awareness in this movement? Was there not more sensation? Now imagine you had a cup of water in that flexed arm, and eccentrically contract the bicep to put it down. Reverse breathing has the same effect on the myriad of ‘automatic movements’ we do throughout our yoga practice. Reversing our breathing can bring a whole new light of awareness to the simplest movements, which in turn brings more holistic and healthier movement as a whole.
Physiological Benefits:
What’s more, there are physiological benefits to doing the opposite breath for common yoga asanas and movements. During exhalation, as the diaphragm relaxes and rises, it pulls upward, potentially influencing the tension and function of the psoas muscle. This connection can be especially important during movements that require a stable core, such as lifting or twisting. The psoas is a primary hip flexor, so when you combine an exhale with a slight backbend, you dramatically increase the stretch effect on this commonly over-tightened muscle. This interaction enhances the stretch effect on the psoas, which is often tight due to prolonged sitting or stress. As another benefit, exhaling into a backbend creates eccentric contraction in the front body— this means it helps re-pattern our front line to pull up, instead of slouch down. This is perhaps one of the most beneficial training patterns we can bring to our front line, and backwards breathing might be a way in to that for you.
Another benefit of backwards breathing physiologically is felt during forward folds. Generally we are cued to exhale into a forward fold, which feels intuitive and beneficial. Consider, though, that inhaling into a forward fold increases intra-abdominal pressure. This added support allows you to fold slower than usual into your forward fold, and with incredible support for the low back. You may find that you fold more slowly and naturally maintain a lot more length in the spine as you fold. You will notice in your students less collapsing and rounding in the thoracic vertabrae as well, helping them to feel space and length as they fold.
And the same benefits follow us into our twists. Normally we compress and condense during a twist with an exhale— this has its own benefits such as a compressing of the organs of digestion and elimination in order to release toxins and soak up fresh blood. Flipping the script, though, we find that twisting with an inhale generates that same amazing support from intra-abdominal pressure, allowing us to lengthen easily as we twist, and keeping our spine long and strong.
Neurologically Enhancing:
Movement experts agree that automatic movements are empty movements. To stay healthy in our movement neurology, we must find ways to remain in what’s called the ‘learning zone’. A concept put forth by worldwide movement inspiration Ido Portal describes three zones of neurological movement potential. When learning a new movement, for example, you struggle—it’s frustrating, and you feel like you’ll never get it. This is zone 1, though you don’t feel good at the movement you are growing astronomical amounts of neurological connections. After practice you move into a space of slight comprehension— you can perform the movement with relative success, but you are still working to attain it. This is zone 2— we are getting better at the movement but not growing from it as much. Eventually, the movement becomes ‘second nature,’ and you become really good at it. Most of us want to stay in the third category, but studies show that as the movement gets easier, we grow less and less neurological connections. Ideally, we should challenge ourselves to keep movements from category one and two in our daily practice to ensure we keep growing new synapses in our movement practice. This calls back to the teachings of the earlier teachings from the Sutras, that “To awaken her (Kundalini), the yogī has to churn their point of one-pointedness in the heart, without break, again and again… They must churn it by inserting sparks of awareness, one after another, again and again, in unbroken continuation.” We are meant to learn something, and then let it go, in order to re-learn, and re-let go. This is how we grow both physiologically, nuerologically and spiritually!
In conclusion, the practice of backwards breathing offers us an opportunity to reawaken our connection to the breath, to experience our movements with greater awareness, and to explore new physiological and neurological benefits in our yoga practice. By consciously reversing the automatic patterns of our breath, we open ourselves to the subtle yet profound effects of this practice, allowing it to inform and transform not only our asanas but our entire approach to movement and mindfulness. Just as we call upon Tara for her compassionate intervention, ready to receive her guidance, so too must we be ready to embrace the guidance of our breath. By remaining open and attentive to these subtle shifts, we pave the way for deeper growth and transformation, both on and off the mat.