A Chakral Awakening by Tanya Roland
I've been on a plateau in my yoga practice for a long time. Growth has come in microscopic steps. I think I was born with a bit of an innate flexibility and strength, which combined with a lazy streak, creates complaisance in me. I know I can go further in my practice, and I want to take the next step, but I haven't felt confident that deepening asana was going to get me where I wanted to go. So I've deepened my meditation practice, considerably, and for the last four or so years, asana and pranayama have taken a back seat. I still go to the mat when I feel the need, but meditation definitely comes first.
Almost two months ago I noticed that there was a north Indian dance class being offered in the little town in Colorado where I live. I've always loved dance, and classical Indian music being one of my favorites, I decided this could be a wonderful way to reconnect with my body after having spent so much time on the meditation cushion. Well, very quickly I discovered a fascinating thing: I lead much of my movement from chakra three (or the area of the diaphragm). This immediately brought to mind a lot of the feedback I'd been getting from my lama over the last couple of years. I promptly got out all my yoga books and sure enough, chakra three, as I had recalled, was all about power, esteem, and so forth. Now here was my body utterly confirming what my teacher had been saying all along (and I had tried vehemently to rationalize or deny)... ego! ... arrogance! Yikes!
I decided to email JJ to tell her about this revelation, especially after her cover article in the last Sun & Moon newsletter on aligning the chakras. JJ confirmed that she too, had chakra three issues and we'd look at it in greater detail in her upcoming workshop in Moab, Utah.
Well, the week-long workshop in Moab was not much short of mind boggling for me. Many of the alignment movements we did were familiar territory from teachers I'd studied with Richard Freeman always did a lot of mula bandha work, (the root chakra at the base of the spine is called muladhara. The bandha, or seal associated with it is called mula bandha. We'll address the bandhas more in depth in subsequent articles). Barbara Benagh was always moving us to the core through subtle movements and visualization, and JJ certainly has been teaching and speaking about aligning the chakras over the years. But this time something clicked, in a big way... all the light bulbs went off. For once, someone was taking all the chakras into consideration in systematic fashion - the whole spine and its alignment - to find where we're strong and where we're weak. JJ introduced simple movements to bring us back toward balance. Subtleties that had been hidden in basically stable poses suddenly became glaringly obvious in my spine, and stood out in my mind (and body) like a sore thumb.
Now these are things that I've certainly been aware of at some point or another, like lack of belly tone, poor neck alignment, and a forward diaphragm. But never had I ever considered them in their entirety, especially as they related to the spine as a whole. So what has ensued since is a number of conversations with JJ that continue to this day as my understanding and appreciation of this discovery broadens and deepens. These conversations beg numerous questions that address not only us as individual teachers and practitioners, but also the larger phenomena of our culture, other cultures, and humanity as a whole. In a sense I feel like all the practice I've done to this point brought me to the unfolding of this realization: that JJ has stumbled upon a profound truth that has remained buried, for ages, right in front of our eyes. In one such conversation I was sort of pondering aloud why none of the old texts or teachings ever addressed this in a direct way. JJ responded that they didn't need to in the same way, that the only alignment cues given to us by the ancient yogis were the three band has (which she incorporates in her chakra alignment at chakras one, three and five). And the more I think about this, I feel like perhaps we've managed along the way, influenced by our highly specialized and stressful lives, to focus on particular parts and not the whole. Perhaps the teachers who remembered the whole and the profoundest of meaning at the core are no longer with us to impart that vision. And we, in our fledgling study and practice in this country, have been left to make these discoveries ourselves, much as the ancients made their discoveries, on the proverbial mat and mediation cushion.
For myself, now the work is to undo a lot of the years of learning that may have increased body awareness, and peripheral alignment, but that doesn't necessarily directly support the prime directive of my practice. JJ and I have decided to do a number of interviews that will go deeper into the holistic nature of chakra alignment. These will be presented as a series of future newsletter articles. In the meantime, I'm appreciating how much I've missed the deeper value of asana and experiencing a gratitude that the way there is clear and attainable. I still consider asana and pranayama a firm ground for my meditation practice, now more so than ever.