Last Updated on August 5, 2015
This is Part Two of Exploring Hṛdaya Yoga. In Part One we took a look at what the Hṛdaya is. In this article we will explore how this pertains to the practice of Yoga.
When teaching yoga to people, in groups and as individuals, my primary focus from a philosophical perspective is that yoga is an approach not an activity nor the outcome of an activity. From a practical perspective my primary focus is on breath and on awareness. The subject matter of this article is the prior mentioned concern, namely looking at the approach of yoga and more specifically at the heart’s approach to yoga which gives us what I call Hṛdaya Yoga or “Yoga of the Heart”.
I have studied and practices many forms of yoga and esoteric arts since my eartly teenage years. A list of this would include hatha yoga, kundalini yoga, tantric yoga, kriya yoga, Taoist yoga (Chi Kung and a little Tai Chi), martial arts, and what I call Body of Light Yoga (a form of inner meditative yogic application). All these yoga forms include various exercises or activities the practitioner engages him or herself within. These activities include holding specific physical positions (asana), making certain rhythmic body movements (as found in kundalini yoga), performing what are called “locks” using body, breath, and specific muscle contractions together, and also more subtle activities such as chanting (using sound and intonation), and meditation on channels and life-force within the body-mind complex.
The key to all of these activities is that the “yoga” aspect is not within the activity itself, rather it is in my approach to the activity. I shall give you some examples of what I mean with my use of the word approach. I may approach an activity with a sense of trying achieve something. I may approach the activity with a sense of trying to change something, transform something, improve something, and so on. What approach do you bring to your yoga practice?
The Heart’s approach to yoga is the only approach which I consider to be an integral part of Wisdom for a Life of Freedom. All other approaches are, in my observation, only a means to further separation, struggle, internal warfare, and suffering. These are strong statements, I know, and yet I think we are living in powerful times where a stern look at the reality of what we are doing is best taken seriously into consideration. The Heart’s approach to yoga is one of actively participating in the magnificence, the mystery, the pain, the bliss, the terror, and joy, the fright–in whatever might come to ones attention whilst engaged in yogic practice–of being alive as Man.
Life is a potent and power-filled experience. As Man we are whole, complete, and Divine. Our struggle to change, to evolve, to improve, and fix ourselves is the result of no longer re-cognising our true nature. Life Is. Life is happening whether we are present to it or not. Yoga of the Heart challenges us to be present to Life. Present to the life within the body, within each breath, within each cell, within our awareness, within the Divine which is accessible through all these manifestations of Life.
There is one simple question you could ask yourself now: “Am I willing to consciously participate in the co-creation of that which I Am, right now, right here, in this very instant?” An important question to follow this with is, “Am I willing to take on the full responsibility of what such an act of conscious co-creation/participation entails and implies?”
The Path of Freedom is a path of total and absolute self-responsibility. Yet how can I be totally self-responsible if I am not actively choosing to participate in the unfolding self That I Am here in this world, through this body-mind-soul complex, and all the many other layers and dimensions of Man? I can’t. Not consciously, not with awareness.
What the ancient yogis discovered were pertinent and effective ways to actively and consciously participate in Life at it most intimate level–within the breath, heart, mind, and body of Man himself or herself. The kriyas, the asana, the breathing, the meditative self-application… these are all ways to actively be present to the unfolding of Life through the phenomenon of Man. There is an axiom in tantra which says “You get there by being there”. If it is enlightenment you seek, you get there by being there. If it is Inner Peace you seek, you get there by being there. If it is greater ease and joy in your relationships, you get there by being there. You may have already felt exactly what this means, and for further clarity I shall explain what my take on this is.
Life, and all its infinite possibilities, is not something to be attained; it is not a goal or an outcome. Life Is. Therefore I Am. If you wish to have greater Inner Peace this too is not something you can attain in the truest sense of that word. It is not something you can work toward in the truest sense of what we mean when we say “to work toward” some thing or some result. If you wish to have greater Inner Peace I would suggest that what you are seeking is a shift in consciousness. The first shift in consciousness is the realisation that Inner Peace is already an integral part of the potentiality you refer to as “I”, which I would refer to as “you”, or in my case “me”. Following this shift in consciousness is the realisation that as this is already an aspect of my potentiality it is not something I can strive toward, rather I can either choose to participate in that potential or not. If I choose to participate in it, I am there. If I choose not to, I am not there… I will not experience Inner Peace.
The pertinent question to ask at this point is, “How on Earth (literally) can I participate in these seemingly hidden aspects of my potentiality if there don’t appear to be a part of my experience right now?”
Yoga practice is one answer to that question. It is an answer that has been carefully realised and refined over many thousands of years. Yoga is about participation. What is the most direct, immediate, and intimate aspect of myself as Man I can participate in right now? My body. My breath. The life-force within my body, out of which my body is arising in this very instant.
This is the Heart’s approach to yoga. This is Yoga with heart. We’ll explore in Part Three of this article what this approach to yoga has got to do with the Heart in Man and how this approach looks in practice.
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