In forty years of studying,
practicing and teaching yoga I have developed a way of working with the
body, the breath and the mind, which is at once simple and sophisticated.
After having been exposed to so many religions and philosophies, with their
myriad rules and regulations, I finally condensed both the technique of
yoga as well as my personal philosophy down to the simple Taoist practice
of wei-wu-wei, or doing-without-doing. This is the technique where, according
to Taoist practices, one acts like water, flowing with the stream instead
of fighting it, to obtain results. In Greek philosophy pantha rhei means everything
is in flux. As human beings the art is to go with the flow, not to offer resistance
but to move with the forces that move us. Fighting the forces, the body, and
the mind to obtain results is called doing. This is the way most people spend
their lives, and in this there is a lot of friction and loss of energy.
Not-doing or wu-wei is to move fluently with
the forces, the body, and the mind, not fighting our way through things. For
this, the mind and body have to be in a state of quiescence in order to reflect
without distortion the here and now. Patanjali states that the mind should
be colorless like a crystal which reflects whatever object it is put on. The
Greeks said: gnoti seauton, or know yourself. This self-knowledge is the self-reflection
of the mind and the body, emptied of all thought and actions. Then the mind
and body are in direct contact with the here and now in which the observer,
the observed and the act of observation are one (the core of both Patanjali's
and Krishnamurti's teaching). Once the body and mind are made quiet through
self-reflection, one can stay in this state for a while, or one can move back
into acting. Projecting an act, a wish or intent in this state of mental and
physical quiescence has extraordinary power to self-fulfill, as there are
no thoughts, actions and emotions to interfere with it. This is called jan-zu,
or the act-that-does-itself, and has been amply described in such classics
as “Zen or the art of Archery” by Herrigel.
As far as yoga is concerned,
most students practice the asanas from the point of view of the physical body,
as a purely physical exercise. This is called doing. Wu-wei
or not-doing applied to the practice of yoga means that the
attention is focused on the inner energy body more than on the outer physical
body. Though the classical Hatha yoga asanas are performed with great mental
and physical precision, they are at the same time integrated with a specific
kind of breathing which forms the bridge between the outer physical body and
the inner energy body. Aligning each posture on the force of gravity with
its inherent rebound effect, which renders the body light and fluid, this
breathing is guided to fill the inner energy body and to make it strong, resilient
and vital. Thus, there is an enhanced capacity for recuperation from the negative
influences of daily life. At the same time, the daily wear and tear on the
body is minimized, as the body does not move from a mere muscular point of
view, but rather from the vitality of the inner energy body. Moving the body
from the inner energy body is called doing-without-doing,
in which the postures flow like water (the-act-that-does-itself).
This technique is well known in the Far East, and the years spent in Indonesia,
where dancing in this way is natural, have undoubtedly contributed to developing
this concept in the art of yoga.
In 1981 I wrote 'Centering Down.' It was my first attempt to describe - not the practice of yoga itself - but the way how to practice. Centering Down became straight away a classic and is still in demand. For many schools and practitioners it has become the basic book for practice. In it I describe the beginning and the evolution of what became the eight vital principles of practice. I conceived of these principles originally as eight, then they became five, then seven, and now they are back to being eight. This shows that evolution is ongoing, and that new truths are always explored and found.
Many people are now applying the vital principles, and thus I thought it opportune to give a short history of them and to explain them in more detail. Further explanation you can find in Dancing the Body of Light, the sequence to Centering Down, and Harmonic Passages, by Dona Holleman and Renato Turla.
There is a sentence in the Bhagavad-Gita that I read many years ago : "Yoga karmasu kausalam", in English, "Yoga is skill in action." This means any action we may undertake, in any arena of our lives. Put another way, it is not what we do that becomes yoga, but rather the way we do it. One might perform a complex asana that is wholly devoid of skill or beauty. Conversely, a simple sidewalk stroll may be infused with sublime beauty and masterful skill. What makes the difference is our state of mind; it alone determines whether an action is 'yoga' or mere movement.
The principles represent the distillation of more than forty years of research, reflection and experience, and they are meant to help students incorporate the "yoga state of mind" in practice and in daily life. As with any worthwhile pursuit, I owe much to the people who have inspired and helped me along the way, especially Jiddu Krishnamurti, Vanda Scaravelli, B.K.S. Iyengar, Mabel Todd, and Carlos Castaneda. I first met Krishnamurti in 1960, and spent the next twenty years attending his talks and conducting private interviews with him. Through him I met both B.K.S. Iyengar (who became my yoga instructor), and Vanda Scaravelli (who became my closest friend and mentor).
While these teachers provided encouragement, insight and instruction in the asanas, it was my task to find a balance between the physical practice of Iyengar, the more feminine aspect that Vanda emphasized, and the meditative state of mind that Krishnamurti espoused and embodied. At about this same time in the mid-1960s, I also began a close examination of the works of Carlos Castaneda. From him I learned about 'intent' and (as he calls it) 'the assemblage point' or 'reality tunnel' in which each of us lives. Castaneda underscored the notion that we are free to change this reality tunnel at any time we wish, and that it is sufficient merely to intend such a change. In 1980, I came across a book written by Mabel Todd in the 1930s. From her I began to understand the importance of alignment in the body and the center of gravity, or 'hara,' located in the lower abdomen. Energized by her work and her concepts of rooting, centering, alignment and breathing, I revolutionized my own yoga practice and wrote my first book, Centering Down, in 1981.
Whether they knew it or not, each of these remarkable people has helped
me to appreciate and animate the eight vital principles. As formulated by
Krishnamurti, "the meditative state of mind," or total attention
is the first of these. This "alpha state" forms the foundation on
which the other principles rest, and is the glue that keeps them together.
Total attention is the first step toward achieving that rare and breathtaking
quality that is the focus and reward of our yoga practice. Though I describe
these principles in a linear fashion, that is, one after the other, they form
in reality one whole, and are always done simultaneously. It is thus not a
one-two-three sequence, but rather one movement that goes on uninterrupted
throughout each posture as well as in our daily life, as these principles
are not only meant for use on our yoga mat, but can be applied at all times
and everywhere. Each principle contains within it all the others and cannot
be applied separately - the first one contains already the last one, and they
all come back to centering body and mind in such a way that there is a natural
physically and mentally meditative state at all times and everywhere, not
at certain times and in certain places or postures. One can compare this to
the earth in globe form, or as a flat map. On the flat map there is a beginning
(for instance in
L.A.) and an end (Sydney), but this is only illusion, because in reality the
earth is a globe and there is no 'beginning-point' or 'end-point'. Or one
can compare this to white light going through a prism, which makes all the
rainbow colors. Each principle is one color of the rainbow, but part of the
totality, which is the white light.
In the application of these principles it is important to understand not only the physical body, how it is put together and how it functions, before adding the asanas to it, but also the workings of the mind and the energy body. The eight principles are meant to give the body the maximum space and ease in the poses by following its natural lines and its relationship with gravity, the air pressure and other stresses imposed on it by the environment that it is subject to. This is only possible if we work from a meditative state of mind or total attention. In this state of mind we can initiate our movements with the energy body, which then in turn pulls and guides the physical body through those movements.
1. The meditative state of mind or the not-doing of the mind
2. Relaxation or the not-doing of the physical body
3. Intent or the not-doing of visualization
4. Rooting
5. Centering
6. Aligning
7. Breathing
8. Elongating
To know more about them and integrate them in your practice you can consult
the books Centering Down, Dancing the Body of Light, Harmonic Passages and
Eyes of Innocence, all available through Pandion Enterprises VOF.
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“Dona can be nearly invisible. She does not seem to create a disturbance in space. One minute she is not in the room then blink your eyes and there she is. Would you please ask her to include in our training how she manages her presence and energy/electricity/being in this way. I would like Dona to teach us how to walk. The foundation must be in awareness and also in how much energy you leak out or something.“
Observation of Suzanne DeWitt, Seattle , July 2003
What is Centered yoga'. Centered yoga is the search for balance between the two polarities of the human being, the outgoing, extrovert, active side and the ingoing, introvert, receptive side, in which there is no ‘leakage' of energy, and no holding back. It is the understanding and application of the old yin-yang symbol, where the two polarities form one circle. With most of us we manifest one predominant personality. For instance, one person is more of an outgoing personality, while another one is quieter. Of course this is not always 100%, and not at all times, hence the ‘dots' within the yin-yang circle.
The outgoing, yang side of us is the one that acts positively upon the world. It tries to ‘change' the outer world according to a personal inner vision. This includes judging, classifying and labelling the outer world according to one's personal conditioning. The song of a bird is ‘nice'; the sound of an airplane is ‘not-nice'. Thus the two sounds are ‘changed' by being labelled and classified, put into two different categories. In this we forget that a sound is only a sound, a vibration of the air, and that any adjective we apply to it is a purely human and, in addition a purely personal one. For another bird the bird song may not be ‘nice' at all, but may mean an aggressive assertion of ‘this-is-my-tree-stay-away', and for an airplane lover the sound of the plane may be ‘music-to- the-ears'. The yang side corresponds to our thinking and acting side.
The ingoing, yin side is the one that receives, that allows the world to act upon us, instead of us acting upon the world and trying to change it. It allows the world to act upon up us and – in doing so – to change us in ways that more often than not are not subject to verbalization. Thus, instead of labelling the birdsong as ‘nice', if we take time to just listen to it without throwing anything back in the form of judgement of labelling, we may find that something happens inside us as a result, something that cannot be defined, but is there nevertheless. This listening corresponds to the capacity – present in each human being but with most people not as developed as the thinking side – to pay ‘total attention'. Total attention is opening the channel from the outer world toward the inner world, allowing the outer world to ‘come in' and ‘do' to us whatever it has to do.
Our daily life is for the majority spent in the outgoing mode, the ‘changing the world' mode. This can make us aggressive and very much ‘visible'. In total attention the person who ‘pays total attention' is not there, as the two are mutually exclusive. To ‘think', there has to be a person who thinks. To' pay attention', there cannot be a person behind it; there is only the act of observation, of attention. This absence of an outgoing personality can come over to an ‘onlooker' as ‘being invisible', though, of course, in reality, one is not.
Obviously we cannot spend too much time in this mode, as most of us have to earn a living and act, but we should at least be aware that there is that other mode of being, that is it available to everyone, and that it is of vital health to the mind and heart to be able to revert to it at will, whenever needed. This is the meaning of Centered yoga: the capacity to be in either mode at will, depending on the circumstances; to be able to balance easily between the two.
In the application of yoga I have developed a series of ‘principles', which will help you to understand this other mode of being while practicing yoga and other activities, the one in which total attention is the rule, not just acting. Attention to the body, to the mind itself, to other people. In this I am greatly indebted to my superb masters, my horses, who taught me, and continue to teach me, their masterful skill in being attentive to everything around them. Being the prey animals they are, that is their only survival tool. As human beings we have forgotten that we too are ‘prey' animals, and that we too need to pay attention in order to survive in a world where aggression has become the rule.