hostmelissa
04-27-2009, 07:22 PM
Yoga is sometimes translated as union, highlighting the interconnectivity of all things. The spiritual texts of yoga from the Bhagavad-Gita to the Upanishads espouse the unity of the individual self with the God self. The Bhagavad Gita 6:29 says, "the yoga sees unity and the True Self (Divinity) everywhere, in every creature, in all creation."
From a Western perspective, this idea of the interconnection of all things can be difficult to understand in a culture that reveres the individual and analysis of separate parts. Consider the industrial age and its division of labour into parts on an assembly line. Even the way we work out our bodies on weight machines highlights this division into parts.
How then can we arrive at a practical explanation and application of the interconnection of all things as espoused by the traditional texts of yoga? How can we come to understand our oneness with divinity, our human experience as a reflection of God who exists in everything?
We can begin with our bodies. Our muscles, bones, and organs are distinct, but not separate systems in the body. Everything is interconnected within the continuum of fascia, an inteconnective tissue that unites the body.
Fascia in our body is like the white skin underneath the orange peal. The orange is held together by the white skin; even the sections of the orange are bound together but the threads of white connective material.
Likewise in our bodies, our organs, bones, muscles, circulatory system, nervous system are all embedded within a web of fascia. This continuity within the fascia means that even a small movement in one area of the body pulls on the whole web of fascia connected throughout the body. It is what makes it possible to feel breath movement everywhere in the body.
By starting with interconnections within our internal body we can move out into our external environment and observe that we are but a thread in the tapestry of life. Ed McGaa, an Oglala Sioux spiritual teacher, for instance remarked, "Interdependence is at the center of all things. The separation between us and nature is a mirage."
remember being completely blown away when one of my favorite Shamanic teachers, Kelly La Sha, described trees as the lungs of the earth. Trees breathe unwanted carbon dioxide from the air and replace it with life sustaining oxygen. Because the trees breathe we are able to breathe. Within the current wave of environmentalism is a realization that we are but a strand in the web of life. Whatever we do to the earth happens to all living beings on the planet.
The Buddhist scripture, Avatamsaka Sutra says: "All is one" meaning that every being in the universe depends on every other thing and every other being for their existence. We can begin to sense this interconnection by observing the movement of breath in the body and then following that breath out into the world.
From a Western perspective, this idea of the interconnection of all things can be difficult to understand in a culture that reveres the individual and analysis of separate parts. Consider the industrial age and its division of labour into parts on an assembly line. Even the way we work out our bodies on weight machines highlights this division into parts.
How then can we arrive at a practical explanation and application of the interconnection of all things as espoused by the traditional texts of yoga? How can we come to understand our oneness with divinity, our human experience as a reflection of God who exists in everything?
We can begin with our bodies. Our muscles, bones, and organs are distinct, but not separate systems in the body. Everything is interconnected within the continuum of fascia, an inteconnective tissue that unites the body.
Fascia in our body is like the white skin underneath the orange peal. The orange is held together by the white skin; even the sections of the orange are bound together but the threads of white connective material.
Likewise in our bodies, our organs, bones, muscles, circulatory system, nervous system are all embedded within a web of fascia. This continuity within the fascia means that even a small movement in one area of the body pulls on the whole web of fascia connected throughout the body. It is what makes it possible to feel breath movement everywhere in the body.
By starting with interconnections within our internal body we can move out into our external environment and observe that we are but a thread in the tapestry of life. Ed McGaa, an Oglala Sioux spiritual teacher, for instance remarked, "Interdependence is at the center of all things. The separation between us and nature is a mirage."
remember being completely blown away when one of my favorite Shamanic teachers, Kelly La Sha, described trees as the lungs of the earth. Trees breathe unwanted carbon dioxide from the air and replace it with life sustaining oxygen. Because the trees breathe we are able to breathe. Within the current wave of environmentalism is a realization that we are but a strand in the web of life. Whatever we do to the earth happens to all living beings on the planet.
The Buddhist scripture, Avatamsaka Sutra says: "All is one" meaning that every being in the universe depends on every other thing and every other being for their existence. We can begin to sense this interconnection by observing the movement of breath in the body and then following that breath out into the world.