Page 36 - the NOISE August 2013

I knew a girl / Her name was Truth / She was a hor- rible liar / Like a soldier standing long under fire / Any change comes as a relief.
h, seemingly insurmountable odds. The feeling of be- O ing stuck, of needing something or someone to help
you break back into that happy state of wellbeing. You nev- er know where help is going to come from, but when it does, it feels like a miracle; when it does, you know there is a God.
Like when a police officer Toaki Teitoi, was lost at sea for 15 weeks in 2012. Surprisingly, it was not a dolphin but a shark that brought about his salvation. The predator contin-
ued to circle and bump his boat as he lay fast asleep, so Mr. Teiroi could awaken in time to see a ship in the distance and then frantically wave for help.
It is often the destructive things that lead us to freedom. The dis-ease that comes from not caring for yourself physi- cally or energetically prompts you towards healthy habits. In nature, continuous prairie fires in the Midwest made some of the most nutrient rich soil in the world. Forest fires can help maintain a broader diversity of habitats for wildlife. Compost for future bloom.
We cringe at the things that destroy, often not seeing their benefit in the cycle of life, just looking at one moment in time and calling it bad. But it is when the clearing comes, when we experience a breakthrough of consciousness, that we are freed. As a soul love of mine said, “Pain is your friend.” And aren’t you lucky if you can take any experience and turn it to gold, knowing that walking through fire refines you?
At a recent workshop at Yoga Experience in Flagstaff, the modern yoga master Noah Maze lead students sweating, straining, and desperately reaching, in the Warrior Series. The collective body temperature of the room rose exponen- tially in this 21⁄2 hour class. The posturing Mr. Maze put us into made us feel like warriors indeed.
Watching a room full of yogis practicing Warrior Poses on soft plastic mats is not a fearful sight, although the postures are named after a huge and terrible hero warrior, Virab- hadra, who is adorned with skulls, has a thousand arms and
three giant eyes. He was cre- ated by Shiva, the Lord of Uni- versal Consciousness, in order to avenge the death of his be- loved wife, Sati (Awareness/ Truth). In this Romeo and Juliet story of sorts, the for- bidden lovers leave a trail of destruction. Sati bursts into flame, extinguishing her own life. Shiva sends Virabhadra to exact a revenge, which is illustrated in the Yoga Warrior Series (Virabhadrasana I, II, & III):
Warrior I shows Virabhadra crashing a party with a sword in both hands, thrusting his way up from deep, deep be- low the Earth. In Warrior II, he fixes his sword and eyes (all three) on his opponent, Sati’s
father. Then, in Warrior III, he moves swiftly and cuts off his target’s head.
In the yoga class, Mr. Maze put us in such a precise align- ment, the kind of detailed and painful posturing one would never do on their own. We were not fighting the world but our own granthis, energetic knots that block the flow of prana in the body.
Because of the energetic fierceness of the pose, the en- ergy channels running from the sole of our feet to the tips of our fingers broke open. Then, the revitalizing life force of prana gushed into our veins, as if an internal dam was released.
Once upon a time, my favorite yoga pose was “defeated warrior.” It is an unofficial pose I gladly fell into after fruit- fully fighting the world. I later coined it “recharging warrior.” In its posture, one’s heart lays prostrate on Mother Earth, limbs extend and twist luxuriously from the body. In twists, the spine, the tunnel of our main consciousness, is revived. Once rejuvenated, I could intentionally break barriers in my own consciousness, not fighting the world around me, but refining the way I connected to that world by releasing the demons within.
The look of bliss on a yoga student’s face emerges when the internal and external world come more into connected peace , into harmony. Yoga = Union.
Some yogis devotedly chant, “Om mani padme hum [the jewel of the lotus resides within].” Sometimes finding that rich, always-there-for-you treasure is as difficult as digging for gold. But when Awareness meets Universal Conscious- ness, the individual self is refined by fire.
We can welcome it, bringing about the process which takes us to our true, beautiful essence more easily, like a controlled burn.
Or we can let our awareness awaken to the light of con- sciousness and burn wild, knowing that, despite the pain, the universe is conspiring for us.
| elissa abbott may at times enjoy a little yogurt before a little yoga. lotusheart16@gmail.com
— Ben harper, “diamonds on the inside”
36 • AUGUST 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us