April 2021
Mary Taylor
Lotus Pose Feet and More...
Q: “The sum of all Tibetan meditations is no match for the way I, Marpa the translator, sit."
I am struck by the consistency with which thangkas, statues, etc. display beings sitting in full lotus with ankles in plantar flexion, with no inversion or eversion at all (at least in the top leg, although in most it appears like that for both legs), and plantar surfaces facing up. Their feet do not extend across the femur, and yet there is space between their heals (in the frontal plane). I can't recall ever seeing a living human manage to sit like this. And my body proportions would never allow it.
Is this merely a trend in art? Or perfect emanation bodies which take countless eons to cultivate?
This is more of a stylized representation of good sitting form. The soles of the feet facing up as they are shown in many artistic renditions would be contraindicated for most of us. As you know, the most important thing in Padmasana is that you are comfortable and that you can easily get in and out of it--and that when you do get out of the posture you are able to walk!
In good artistic renditions of people sitting the shape and form of the belly is more literal. The belly is usually shown to be a floating ball and the area under the ball of the belly, just above the pubic bone, is slightly retracted. This is teaching the uniting of the prana and the apana in the plane of the navel.
This uniting is the opening of the middle path, which is probably what was referenced in the Marpa quote you include in your question.
Q: Can mudras, hand gestures, enhance the meaning the words carry? Expressing Mantras along with mudrā and dṛṣṭi as a whole practice inspires me deeply.
Yes, the practice of mudrā and the placing of mantras and yantras in different parts of the body (nyāsa) is a way of feeling the whole system of the nāḍīs balance so that one can appreciate the interconnected fabric of the body and the prāṇa. Mantra and mudra practices can bring insight and grounding to a practice—it’s great you find them inspiring!
You could look at the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā on Śāmbhavī Mudrā (Chapter 4 around verse 37--verse numbers can be different in different editions). This important practice helps to bring hand mudrās into a full-body form that can be quite transformative.
Q: Do you recommend avoiding jump backs for most practitioners? I warn against the jolting for shoulder joints and toes?
No, we do not recommend categorically avoiding jump backs. However, it is important to maintain strength and good alignment in the process of jumping back.
Jump backs should not jar or strain the shoulders, wrists elbows, or feet. As we learn to jump back (and forward or through) our arm strength as well as the connection between legs, core, psoas muscles, and upper body become more refined. As this happens, jumping back becomes easier and safer.
So it is a transitional move that should be worked on methodically and slowly to build strength and coordination. When landing from a jump back it is important to be able to feel a kind of spring in the landing--like shock absorbers on a car. If this is not easy, better to work slowly, step back and build a stronger catvari as the transitional jump back evolves.
Q: Having practiced for a number of years now, I find myself missing the ability to be truly struck by something special without, censoring it as it happens, out of the desire to stay balanced. It’s as if there’s a part of me that’s retreating as if giving into astonishment would indicate I’d forgotten about impermanence and suffering.
I’m confused about the learned impulse to remain balanced and that impulse’s consequential dampening of the ability to experience special things with excitement. How do you let life get a rise out of you while also understanding that it's all empty of self?
What you’re experiencing is definitely a confusing stage that many practitioners go through. It’s good you’re noticing it and also that you’re questioning it.
The practices can make us more sensitive to feelings, thoughts, and sensations and yet we’ve “learned” about the value of equanimity. This seeming dichotomy can lead to spiritual bypassing or shutting down. Continuing to practice, question, and look again more deeply allows us to experience things that arise in full high definition form without becoming reactive or avoiding them. Instead, emotions, for example, can become very pronounced, but not directed externally and thereby they are transmuted.
The most difficult thing, because it cannot be done formulaically, is to experience that which is arising as the particular and unique as being unutterably delightful.
Q: What are your thoughts on how Yoga has mutated in the West, and what needs to be done to bring it back to its source? Is yoga meant only for healing and therapy, or is there more that can be achieved with it? What is your view, would be the source?
Yoga is wonderful for healing and therapy--not only on a physical level but perhaps even more so on a deep, satisfying intrinsic level. It is important to not limit oneself in terms of either of these ways in which yoga can be of benefit. Equally, looking at yoga from a goal-oriented perspective, (such as achieving health, fame, or power) limits the depth of inquiry that is often deficient in both traditional and modern yoga.
Current trends in yoga in the west are a phase. Westerners are relatively new to the deeper benefits of yoga and it can become easy to stop practicing with an open, inquisitive mind when you find something tangible, like yoga therapy, that seems to work. So for any of us who are interested in going more deeply and the evolution of yoga in the west, patience, communication, continued study, and practice will help the broader situation.
The source for the evolution of yoga is the extended historical and modern global communities of practitioners and, of course, the center of one’s own heart.
If you've got a burning philosophical question or one about yoga, asana, meditation, or pranayama, or if you wonder about how yoga intersects with your life, please submit a question here and we'll try our best to answer! We'll also publish one or two in our newsletter and, if you wish, please give us your initials and where you're from so we can include them in our answer. Thank you!
