Topic 6.01.05 Developing Awareness in your practices

Topic 6.01.05 Developing Awareness in your practices . VERSION CONTROL: 1 August 2017

Being conscious of the sacredness of the body slowly turns the whole of life into an experience of feast and celebration…every walk, or meal, or deep sleep or joy at a flower, or cat, dog, beautiful face becomes a form of praise and prayer. Being conscious of the holiness of the bodies of other human and sentient beings makes you instinctively more sensitive and protective towards them in every way, and breeds what the Buddha called “a loving kindness and harmlessness” in the core of your being. To see, know, feel through understanding the sacredness of your own body the sacredness of the entire creation, from the smallest germ, cockroach, mouse, to the elephant, whale, Himalayas awakens a holy passion for God in all forms of life, and a practical resolution to do everything in your power to protect and guard nature from humanity’s greed and ignorance.

In this process you must work to develop a feeling awareness of what is actually going on in your body. By directing your attention to notice the patterns of your breathing, your posture, the way you hold your back, your chest, your belly, your pelvis…In all these and other areas you can carefully sense the free movement of energy, as Being is continuously renewed, or the contraction and holding that prevents it.

As we have seen, reduced to your own body, your first instrument in ShantiYoga, the esoteric is made available. As most of the fundamental attitudes to life have their physical counterpart in the body, reclaiming the body as your sacred garment … the first and last garment …one that you enter life in and depart life with…more like a shawl or sari, flowing and lyrical rather than stiff and formal, like a uniform. Bringing systematic attention to your body can change your whole relationship to your physical life. You begin to create for yourself a much deeper and greater identity. You can notice clearly the rhythms and needs of the body, and its primary sense of measure and proportion…wondrous shapes full of Divine Grace. Its movements create lines of energy and are sacred pujas, rituals to maintain many of its sacred elements. Triangular, round, rainbow-shaped or oval, straight or diagonal, parallel, convergent or divergent, releasing energy, enclosing energy, looping energy…the entire body is involved in these processes together with the senses, mind, intelligence, consciousness and Self. The force activates a joyful celebration of life.