When we listen to the sound of a human heartbeat, we observe that it is not static, nor constant. Rather it is a beat, with intervals of rising/subsiding, coming/going, appearing/disappearing. It is these intervals that create a rhythm.
In Yoga philosophy it is said all of existence pulsates. The universe is one giant organ that pulsates. This principle of cosmic motion makes itself known through the beat of a heart, brain waves, inhale & exhale, as well as the rhythmic cycles we observe in nature. The transition from day into night, spring to fall, early to late adulthood, are all expressions of this rhythmic motion of incoming/outgoing, being/non being, expansion/contraction, now you see it/now you don’t. ‘That no thing in existence remains static but is part of a process continous of flux’.
We recognize this dynamic as innate to existence unconsciously on so many levels, also in how we intuitively re-align to these shifting rhythms. Day transitions into night. We don’t choose to suffer reading in darkness, we light a candle or turn on a light. With the onset of winter, we don’t choose to suffer the winter, we put on a coat, hat & gloves. We also don’t take the setting of the sun personally. Nor do we take the onset of winter personally. We recognize these occurrences as part of a ‘natural’ cycle.
When I first came to know that the Jivamukti Yoga School in NYC was closing, I took it pretty personally. It had been a space of spiritual significance for me, for learning & teaching, for more than twenty years. “How could this be happening?…After all these years of teaching at the school? Of teaching the Jivamukti Yoga Method?…?”
Once all that energy had the occasion to express itself, I found myself recalling when we first moved into that space of 841 Broadway, the 14 years we had been in that space, & how the cycle of the lease was coming to an end. I started to consider Sharon & David, the co-founders of Jivamukti Yoga. How for them a cycle of being business owners in NYC for over 30 years was coming to an end. And what a relief perhaps that was for them. I started to consider Yoga in NYC, from when Jivamukti first opened its doors on Avenue B to where we find ourselves in that cycle today with Power Yoga, Hip Hop Yoga, Heated Yoga, Virtual Yoga, etc. – where perhaps something needs to end to be reborn again.
And then suddenly I found myself no longer taking the closing of the school so personally . There was this recognition that I am one small part of a larger cycle. In fact, that I am part of something altogether much larger than my personal self. And this acknowledgement freed up tremendous energy to be where I am now with greater ease, freedom and a joyful curiosity for the unknown.
Mighty Cosmic forces are manifesting their motion through the motion of the heart. Its motion is the representative of Cosmic forces. All Nature is electromagnetic vibration and life is the crown of all vibrations. This Truth is realized through meditation when the body is deeply relaxed and kept free from all voluntary motions, mental and physical. One gradually and progressively reaches the state of Cosmic motion and Cosmic sensation, Consciousness. One begins to feel a mighty, homogeneous, eternal ocean of life and Consciousness and the individual existence becomes like a transmitter & receiver of that mighty motion of Consciousness. Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati - Self Analysis & Self Knowledge, Based on Atma Bodha of Shankaracharya
Painting – Vija Celmins