THE PATH LESS TRAVELLED with THE INTUITIVE INFLATING EXERCISE
THE PATH LESS TRAVELLED
We begin our exploration of back bending with a familiar poem by Robert Frost,
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, and
that has made all the difference”. Did you notice that slight hesitation in the
poem, “and I-I took the one less travelled by…”— the poet felt a tendency to go
towards the obvious path, but pauses, and allows an inner voice to guide him
towards a path less travelled.
When we work in our asanas we are constantly presented with a similar fork
in the road— do we work to touch our hands to our heels in Ustrasana (camel
pose), or do we surrender external appearances and focus inside while we work
and explore a path that may not be cued? We are all probably nodding our head
to the latter choice, but in reality it is an incredibly challenging choice— how to
keep our focus inside on the real purpose of the pose instead and to surrender the
need for external goals that don’t really grant us the long term benefits. This is
not something isolated to the mat, or the cushion, this is the daily work of surren-
der.
THE ILLUSION OF MAYA
As Robert Frost indicated, the path less travelled by requires surrender, a mo-
ment of release to our patterns. In his poem we go one way instead of the other,
but in terms of spiritual growth, the real path less travelled by isn’t left or right,
it’s Up through the practice of Surrender! According to the Yogic Tradition, our
true nature is veiled from our mind, a phenomenon known as Maya. Though
we may feel like we are making a conscious choice when we choose left over
right, without the guidance of our intuition, our inner awareness, every direction
leads us eventually in a circle. This is the loop of Samsara, the endless cycles
of choices that keep us in a state of suffering. As the ancient yogic text, the
Tantrasadbhava, describes it, “The results of your God consciousness (caitanya)
being fenced in by the five coverings is that you act in a limited way, know in a
limited way, love in a limited way, live in a limited way and possess in a limited
way. Being attached to this path with your organs of knowledge and organs of
action, you are guided to walk the spiritual path in a limited way…Here, being
completely dependent on that illusive energy of knowledge and being without
real knowledge, you are continuously doing right or wrong. So, being completely
entangled in that fence you become just like a beast.”
What we see in this quote is that our judgments and decisions are often cloaked
by our likes and dislikes, the limiting lenses of our samskaras. This means that
when we operate solely from the mind, and disregard our inner intuition and
innate ‘real knowledge’, our decisions lead us in circles so to speak, or as the text
put it ‘fence us in’ and eventually ‘entangle’ us. Which is exactly what happens
to many people during their back bends— they disregard the inner experience of support in order to have the outer experience of touching their heels in Us-
trasana, for example, and in so doing, are eventually entangled in a loop of
feeling a sore back, and perpetuating it with a practice of yoga that keeps it sore.
KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT INNER AWARENESS LEADS YOU DOWN
The option of going ‘up’ might seem impossible to the mind which only knows
‘left and right’, ’right and wrong’. But imagine using the GPS on your phone to
drive to your destination, and never using your common sense to see if you are
driving into the ocean (of Samsara), which as you may have seen on the news
happened just a few miles from the Konalani Ashram in Hawaii at the harbor.
Yes indeed— a person followed their GPS right down a boat ramp into the lit-
eral ocean, and their van sunk. We might not feel like something like that would
ever happen to us, but on a micro level this happens all the time when we neglect
inner sensation during our asana practice. The skillful yogi is one who can use
their mind and intuition together— we come to the fork in the road, we see the
options in front of us, and we use our inner guidance as we proceed.
KNOWLEDGE + AWARENESS LIFTS YOU UP
So we see that our work on the mat has less to do with right and wrong, left and
right, and a lot more to do with whether we are being pulled down into our pat-
terns or up into our awareness. When awareness is present, as it was for Robert
Frost, we might hesitate, we might walk a bit slower, but where we walk is taking
us towards our growth, instead of in circles. As the Shiva Sutras put it, “These
organs [of the mind, body and senses] therefore perform in two ways, depending on whether
you are fully aware or not. Those who are deprived of awareness are pushed down into the
field of ignorance. Those who possess the fullness of awareness, however, become completely
elevated.” In terms of back bending, being pulled down into the field of ignorance
is like reaching for our heels in Ustrasana— you can feel it when it happens, your
core deflates, your joints compress, your breath quickens. But when we prioritize
awareness during the process of bending backward, a remarkable metamorphosis
transpires. With each bend back, our consciousness inflates and our being re-
stores. Through this practice, every back bending posture becomes a sanctuary of
restoration and a conduit for transcendence.
SUMMARY & REFLECTION
In exploring backbends, it’s important to choose a path that emphasizes inter-
nal awareness over external goals, much like choosing the less traveled path
in Robert Frost’s poem. This approach helps avoid entanglement in poor body
mechanics and the limitations of habitual patterns, fostering a more supportive
and transformative practice. Techniques like the inflating exercise from Ta-
dasana emphasize intuitive, natural movement and internal support, guiding
practitioners toward growth and awareness.
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How can you incorporate the principle of choosing internal awareness
over external achievement in your backbend practice to enhance both
your physical and spiritual growth?