At Resonance Healing Arts, November 24, 6-7:30pm. $15-18.
with Jvala Moonfire and Jennifer Ammann
It is sweet to uncover the subtle energies in our bodies in a way that’s suited to the moment. Sometimes energetic asana practice, like dance, art, or any other creative endeavor, can bring us into deep harmony with our true selves unaffected by the stimuli of the world around us. Other times it simply takes focused sitting practice, or a walk in the woods.
Much of the power we source when we go within, what we call awareness, comes from withdrawing attention to the outside world via the power of our senses, and bringing it back into ourselves. We bring our vision to a still point either somewhere on our body, like a thumb or big toe, or somewhere in close proximity to our body, like the space just in front of our nose. We cultivate attention to our breath by keeping the lips together and watching the inhale and exhale trace through the nose down the back of the throat. And we learn to listen to our breath, one of the most intimate songs we can hear.
We experience the openness of the skin as a fluid organ, an ever-graceful and devoted counterpart to the movement of the patterns of breath, so that very much like waves rolling one into the other on the ocean, we lose the perception of ourselves as something separate, a perception so deeply defined by our relationship to form.
Through Yoga, form actually becomes a gateway to freedom. By finding the crossover of contact between breath and body, we become sensitive to the vibratory quality of our physical nature and then we can take that back out to hearing the world with a more sensitive, authentic ear. There are many kinds of Yoga, many ways to drop into an intuitive experience of life. In the vast canon of Yogic text there is a list even, by no means considered exhaustive, of ways to connect with the divine, whatever that means to each individual. Yoga, after all means union — with the Self, the world, all of that which appears to be other than us. On that list is asana (Yoga postures) as well as cooking, love, and music, to name a few.
If you’ve ever heard live music that moved you emotionally or inspired you to dance, perhaps a church choir or organ concert, or you’ve heard the sound of singing bowls bringing your mind to a delicious suspension within peace, you know the power of sound to affect us. VagYoga is an ancient practice of sound as a vehicle to experience aspects of our mind and physicality outside of music’s common frequency. Jvala Moonfire spent eighteen years in India studying VagYoga, Sanskrit, Mantra, Meditation, and Kundalini Yoga. For six months out of the year, she lived in caves in the Himalayas, bathed in the Ganges, and walked the paths of pilgrimage in self-study not only learning the traditions but doing it traditionally, something extremely rare for Westerners.
When I first laid down for a one-hour crystal singing bowl sound bath with Jvala, who combined activated mantra and kirtan chants with the bowls’ vibrations, I felt myself in the space of mental and physical connection very similar to what 25 years of Yoga asana has unfolded for me. I remained lying down for the entire bath, but later found myself quite curious about what vinyasa (the practice of linking Hatha Yoga poses together) would be like with the indescribable sound and vibration of Jvala’s voice and crystal bowls. Not long after that we decided to give it a try; the result was a blissful union of body absorbed in sound that we, not so facetiously, refer to as a “prana party.” And from that blossomed The Alchemy of Crystal Bowls and Yoga Asana.
Finding presence in the body does not require an advanced asana practice, just a desire to listen. It can occur in standing, sitting, simple vinyasa. On November 24, we’ll be joining vinyasa sequences with the soundscape of crystal bowls and mantra in an all-levels practice that we encourage anyone to attend, even those who have no Yoga experience. We’ll be inviting people to follow along with the group-guided vinyasa as it feels right, while exercising the option to be more still when the intuition strikes.
Please bring yoga mats and any other props you like; but if you haven’t got any not to worry, as we have extra mats to share.
Resonance Healing Arts is located at Central Station. It is a cooperative of healing practitioners offering visionary healing.
For more information, visit:
www.facebook.com/events/884078055033200/