Sushumna

 

November 23

We become filled too much with the world and not enough of the earth.

The more involved I am with the world and the craziness that takes place in it, the more distracted I am and the less I acquire and conserve an organic relationship with my immediate surroundings.

 My thoughts and my frustrations about what takes place "out there" in the world where human beings are up to all kinds of nonsense and insanity, in which they influence one another to do terrible things — and this with great enthusiasm — occupy me instead of the impressions of what is around me.

Already, this could begin with the simple sense of breathing and the experience of the core of my body, in a rich and vibrating channel of awareness that extends from the top of my head down to the face and the shoulders, through the center of my body and downwards into my solar plexus. This channel is the central channel of the body,: in yoga, sushumna. It’s the passage through which air flows downwards into my being; and although there are many molecular relationships with my life, especially in the tissues of my body and the foods that I eat, the molecular relationship between breath, the lungs, the blood, and the immediate sense of my Being is one that is constant, a bit different than the one from the foods that I eat.

The simple fact of this constancy means that it can be relied on, should I pay reasonable attention to it, to bring me back to my self and away from the distraction of my thoughts.

I am paying a bit more attention to this this morning because the subject interests me and I have been, in general, more immersed in a study of sushumna from a practical point of view.

That is to say, what is the nature of its function in relation to immediate life and breath?

This question is closely related to the question of our molecular sense of being, which is very much involved with the earth because it is of it. And understanding the molecular sense of being, we understand that our awareness is of the earth, as well as our body and its function. So even these thoughts I have now are not of the world—man’s “world”—, but of the earth. The planet has produced all of its life forms and all of the awarenesses within them as a single whole thing, nothing truly separated from the other – no matter how much appearances may imply that that is so. This means, for example, that all of the bacteria that live in me and help me digest food, for example, with their own individual awarenesses, are in their collective nature a single part of my whole awareness.

Perhaps it isn't so useful to think of that; yet without the concept, the theory, how can I begin to understand myself from an organic and molecular point of view — a view from this moment that goes beyond the theory and penetrates deep into the body? If I don't come into this moment through such a relationship, how else could I do so? Certainly not through my thought – at least the thought of the intellect. It can think of relationship, but I need all of my parts to engage in a relationship. I need my feelings and my body as well as my thoughts. They need to be brought together in a concentrated conjunction that softly, yet firmly, insists on the unity of my being, the wholeness of my existence here on this earth.

with warm regards,

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola magazine.