Relaxed Resilience......Effortless Effort
In life there seems to be times when we fight our way through....swim up stream....go against the grain. Sometimes these times are long spans and others are short. Some of us just live life this way while others of us try to avoid this situation all together. Sometimes it is best to surrender and go with the flow or lessen the drive. Relax to be strong and be strong to relax. Wait.....what the what?
Do you remember
when you were first learning to drive a car, how exhausting it was??!! All
that concentration and working the pedals and steering and watching the
road and worrying about running into something...SCANNING SCANNING SCANNING for deer!!!? I am not sure about you, but I remember a few of my first yoga classes. Do you remember first
learning to do Adho Muka Svanasana (downward dog), so much to think about, to
struggle with, body parts, sweat, face feeling like it will blow off, shoulders screaming, and I am supposed to BREATHE??? Well, we did our practice and we learned. I've
heard certain yoga masters refer to this as "donkey work." And donkey work is
inherently effortful.
After a while, donkey work becomes "mule work." Mules are smarter than
donkeys. They respond to verbal commands and get a lot more done. The
pupil doing mule work catches instructions and responds in his/her body more
quickly with less extraneous movement and energy involved. He/She uses
less effort and achieves more effect.
"The word mindfulness would suggest that the practice focuses solely on
the arena of our minds, but without establishing a bodily posture and
base that can naturally support the condition of mindfulness, our
attempts to remain mindful may be frustrated or unsatisfactory." Will Johnson, The Posture of Meditation (Shambhala, 1996)
II:47, "Perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform
it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached".
–B.K.S. Iyengar
The first step in developing effortlessness is learning. Through persistence and devotion, the pupil's practice gradually
develops into "horse work." At this point, he/she has acquired increased
sensitivity, more intelligence, and greater refinement. Watch a horse
move and compare those movements with those of a mule or donkey. Of
course, the horse moves much faster, but more to the point, its
movements seem easier, more graceful and fluid, more effortless.
As you know, one of the dividends of persistent yoga practice is the
longer and more often you do it, the more skilled you become. And when
you act skillfully, much less effort is required to do the same task
that initially was exhausting. Now that you've learned to drive your car
(more or less hopefully), you can drive, eat a Snickers, tune your radio, read a
road sign, and talk to your companion, all at the same time, usually
without smashing yourself to bits. A certain amount of effortlessness
comes as a result of learning.
Another important element in finding effortless effort is your intention (sankalpa). Why are you practicing the asanas (postures)?
If it is primarily to become stronger, to become more flexible, and to
build stamina–in other words, if your goal is primarily physical–then
the effort in your practice will be quite different than if your
intention in doing the asanas is to bring your body and mind to
a state of quiet equilibrium. You can become quite the whiz–bang
performer of really hard poses and still be very effortful in the doing.
Your poses will look spectacular to the untrained eye, but they will be
far from perfection as Patanjali defines it. If you don't care about
being effortless, if that's not what you're looking for, then it's
unlikely that effortlessness will come any time soon.
Given what has just been said, one thing to keep in mind is that not
every practice need or should be geared toward effortlessness. Sometimes
you're trying to learn something new: a new pose or a new action in a
pose. In that case, you will be using effort to learn what you're trying
to learn. You don't know what you don't know after all! You will make mistakes and you will need to repeat things
over and over. Even though you may be a mature practitioner, in that
particular practice you are back to donkey work. Perfection is not at issue. Beginner's mind ACTIVATE!
The single, most crucial element in your quest for effortless effort is
to develop a quiet, receptive mind. This can come only when you have
done your donkey, mule, and horse work and have decided that
effortlessness is what you're looking for in your practice. As long as
you're learning the mechanics of an asana and trying to build
the requisite physical skills, the reflective mind necessary for
effortlessness will be very elusive. You will busy "doing." Doing takes
effort. For your efforts to become
less effortful, you must become skillful and intentional in your doing,
otherwise, the grossness of your doing will disturb your mind. To go
from doing to undoing, you must, then, become quiet, receptive, and
reflective in mind and body.
"The soil has to become steady and only
then you get reflections. So, for reflection, your mind should be quiet,
like a lake, then you get the reflection…. If you are constantly
creating waves and ripples in your mind, there can't be any possibility
of reflection." Prashant Iyengar
The adjustments necessary to create a reflective mind and to reduce
effort take place on a number of different levels. One level is familiar
to all of us who practice Iyengar Yoga: the level that involves
alignment. Alignment is important for a lot of reasons–safety,
biomechanical efficiency, aesthetics–but it is also critical in
facilitating the free flow of energy in the body. Misalignment creates
resistance, and resistance impedes the flow of energy. Increased effort
then becomes necessary to overcome the resistance engendered by
misalignment. Furthermore, when the body is aligned properly, the cells
of the body function in harmony. This harmonious functioning creates
ease in the body and serenity in the mind. Both body and mind then can
come more readily to a reflective state.
For the beginner, alignment involves effort, donkey work. They are learning
what actions to take to bring about proper alignment in the pose. They aren't worried about effortlessness, they are just trying to get the
alignment right. They are not reflecting, they have to keep thinking, and have to keep doing.
For the mature practitioner, the doing is done.
And because they are capable of a reflective state of mind, the minute the alignment is dropped, it is like a pebble pitched into the still lake of their
mind. They don't think, "Oh, my alignment has dropped. I have to re-engage." Instead, the cells of their body perceive the change and they
adjusts intuitively. At this stage, alignment and adjustments don't go
through the brain, which would disturb the reflective state and create
effort. Rather, the misalignment is the doing, and the reflective,
intuitive adjustment is the undoing.
Another way to bring the
mind to a more quiet state is by being aware of your breath. It is also
a way to monitor and adjust the effort you are using in your practice.
Beginners often don't know when they're holding their breath. They have
to learn to observe the breath as part of the doing of the asana.
Assuming no respiratory problems, the breath should be as soft, steady,
and easy as possible–in other words, effortless. Certainly different
poses put different demands on your breathing. Your breath in Fully Bound Side Angle will be inherently more labored and difficult than in Side Angle Supported by our forearm on thigh or a block.
But within the context of any given asana, your breathing will change
depending on how much effort you are putting forth. As you adjust your
pose, be conscious of the effect of your adjustments on the quality of
your breathing. Pay particular attention to your diaphragm and create as
much softness and space there as possible. If and when you find your
breathing labored or you need to breathe through your mouth, you know
you're far away from effortlessness. As your adjustments bring your
breathing into a soft, easy rhythm, you will find that your body lets go
of some of its effort and your mind moves to a more reflective state;
it becomes quieter and clearer.
Once you've aligned and relaxed the muscles of the body, and the mind
has attained a receptive state, attention must be paid to the sense
organs. The eyes, ears, tongue, skin, even the state of the mucus
membranes in the nose and sinuses have to be brought to a highly
sensitive state. I have found this to be easier to do in Pranayama than in Asana. The relative stillness of the body in Pranayama lends itself to our being able to observe the sense organs in a very subtle way. When you've sensitized yourself in Pranayama, then that sensitivity can be brought to your Asana practice.
As in relaxing the muscles, the relaxation of the sense organs is, at
first, a matter of doing. You intentionally direct your attention to
each of the sense organs, release grips and tension, and allow them to
become quiet. The receptive mind perceives tension (effort) and sends a
message to let it go. We teachers do this with our pupils whenever we
teach them Savasana. Once you are skilled at attaining complete
passivity in the sense organs, however, the mind slips from receptivity
into reflectivity. The slightest change (which in a passive state
inherently implies effort) in your eyeball pressure disturbs the
reflective calmness of the mind and elicits an immediate response in
your eye to relax that does not pass through the mind.
From the experience of effortless effort in the practice of reclining Pranayama, you can move on to developing a reflective state of mind in seated Pranayama (much more challenging). And even though Pranayama follows Asana on the eightfold path, the quality of effortlessness developed in practicing seated Pranayama then can be brought to bear on your Asana practice. And so, as you reach the fourteenth minute of your Dwipada Viparita Dandasana (
Upward Facing Two-Foot Staff Pose),
your reflective mind remains exquisitely sensitized to the tiniest
ripples your body creates and observes as the reflective nature of the
cells of your body causes them to shift subtly to realign and release
the unintended and unnecessary effort that disturbed them.
Abhyasa often is translated as "effort." It is about doing. And vairagya often is translated as "detachment" or "dispassion." It is about undoing. Just as Pranayama follows Asana, so does vairagya follow abhyasa. But just as Pranayama can inform and refine Asana, so varaigya (undoing) can, and indeed must, color abhyasa (doing) so that each has the flavor of the other. Yes, you may be working toward touching your head to your feet in Kapotasana or King Pigeon Pose (abhyasa/doing),
but you must be willing let go of the idea of the final pose when your
sacrum signals you that it is not yet ready to move in so deeply (vairagya/undoing).
I have heard abhyasa (doing) and vairagya (undoing) described as being the two wings of the eagle of sadhana
(
daily spiritual practice) that carries us over the hills and valleys of the fluctuations of the
mind to the abode of yoga where we can be, moment to moment, our true
self, undivided and complete. At that point, (II:48), where we have transcended duality, where doing and undoing,
inner and outer, effort and effortless, doing and doer all fall away.
Then it is no longer a question of more effort or less effort or even
effortless effort. Then, when we remain in a deep backbend for
what seems like eternity, for that moment, we are the asana, we are the
infinite present. Without effort, we simply are.
And then the challenge becomes applying this effortless effort to our daily rhythms. Where our doing and undoing, our inner and our outer, our effort and effortless, our doing and our being the doer fall away.....and again...we just simply ARE. We trust in the moment that all things work out as God intended. We let go of our agenda and simple fall into a space of being present, being compassionate, and being the brilliance we are in that given moment. Moment by moment we slowly spiral inward until one day we meet our soul....and we shine.....effortless effort......we SHINE.
