{"id":95,"date":"2014-01-18T11:49:56","date_gmt":"2014-01-18T11:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ashtangaannarbor.com\/wordpress\/?p=95"},"modified":"2014-01-23T11:48:07","modified_gmt":"2014-01-23T11:48:07","slug":"the-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ashtangaannarbor.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/18\/the-unknown\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Pilgrimage by Olivia Fraser<\/p><\/div>\n

When you do your pilgrimage it’s not easy. Nothing will disturb you.\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>Your aim is to see God. If it becomes easy it is not a pilgrimage.<\/em><\/strong> -Sharath Jois, January 2014<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are structures of experience so deep that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sort of wrong to talk about them.<\/strong> Wrong or ridiculous. Taboo either way.<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s see if I can find a light touch for this.<\/p>\n

So in the fall, there was this question around the shala, of why I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help people plan their first trips to Mysore. Why I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help you game the system at the big shala here, so that you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to go through the same awkward learning process as everyone else. Why Mysore is not a place for us to hang out.<\/p>\n

Or \u00e2\u20ac\u201c more to the point – why I don’t say much or try to fix things when a person has big questions about Janu B or Marichy C, or kapotasana, or kurmasana or urdhva dhanurasana \u00e2\u20ac\u201c any one of the postures that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bringing up emotion or confusion. Bringing up pain patterns that may be energetic or emotional in nature.<\/p>\n

I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to get in your way.<\/p>\n

Ok, now and then I can toss out practical information so you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t waste time or do something dangerous. Ahimsa<\/em>, always. But if I get in the way of your going through awkward or scary learning processes, you might not realize how smart and strong you are. If I hold your hand every time you come up against the unknown, then you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never realize how skillful you can be when the chips are down.<\/p>\n

Besides the matter of your own growth, there’s the matter of the collective. If the majority of you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t become Jedis who can play and create at the edge of what is not known, how is our method \u00e2\u20ac\u201chow is consciousness\u00e2\u20ac\u201dgoing to evolve?<\/p>\n

Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the thing. There is a structure of transformation semi-hidden below the threshold of awareness. This is myth \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not in the sense of fantasy stories, but in the sense of structures in consciousness that our nervous systems recognize and use for inner journeys. One of these structures is what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sometimes called (we probably need a better term) the hero\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey.<\/p>\n

Kung Fu movies, D&D, the Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Eminem, Murakami, Obama, the Dalai Lama\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 straight up hero\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey mythos, all of it.\u00c2\u00a0If you think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m talking Joseph Cambell, well you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re sort of right. But consciousness is changing, and fast. There have been 3 more waves of humanity, plus a raft of new role playing games and Hollywood-Bollywood epics, since Campbell put clothes on the ghost.<\/p>\n

Here are some pieces of this vinyasa that I think have been common for figures from Arjuna to Catness Everdine. If you want your nervous system, your unconscious, your edge<\/span>, to be summoned, then it might be a good idea let something like this structure of experience envelop you. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to force it. Conscioness is already patterned like this; it knows how to unfold.<\/p>\n

There is usually a call<\/em> of some sort. A tug. And usually we start by saying no. But there are guides who champion us, and who make stagnation begin to feel unbearable. If we accept the call to self discovery, there is a crossing of the threshold into the unknown. In that realm there are helpers who represent grace, and nemeses who represent our own inner BS. Dark nights are weathered and dragons are slain \u00e2\u20ac\u201c therein the ego has been drawn out of the shadows, directly confronted, and a little bit of mastery has graced us as a result. Eventually there is a denoument, when we ache for the people and places that represent home. So we return to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153normal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d life. Which, we finally see, has all the same treasures as the adventure realm. Normality becomes illuminated with sparks of the unknown, everywhere. Reality is enchanted. And our work becomes, always<\/em>, offering whatever it was we found in the unknown realm as a gift to our communities. Making what has been given to us available to those who ask. And waiting for the next call.<\/p>\n

The main thing in this is that it is beneficial, at key times, to step in to the unknown. Actions that scare us even though they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not actually harmful, or anything representing danger to the ego \u00e2\u20ac\u201c these things are FULL of potential or blocked energy. They are your vehicle forward, on key occasions, when the timing is right.<\/p>\n

Some of us tough cases have to go all the way to far-off lands to shore up the myth. That was the story of my 20s, whereas my last three years have been an epic of getting grounded in the most mundane possible circumstance, so that its normalcy will be eroded and enchanted by the natural\/supernatural appearance of a yoga shala. Smarter people can find it in the grit of a daily morning yoga practice (I see you: you can do it)<\/em>, in quitting smoking, or in a commitment to make every movement from the intelligence of the heart. You all all found it last week in the Polar Vortex, practicing in conditions in some ways more revealing and deepening than those I encountered the same week here in Mysore.<\/p>\n

But about India. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to make a bold statement about ashtangis who tell you to stay away, the same way they told me to stay away for many years. Westerners who have been here and back and lived to resent it may, just perhaps, have a special hatred for losing control. I could be wrong here. But for those of us with a perfectionist streak (which I sincerely admire, because I know intimately how sloppy and lazy one can be when born without it), Ashtanga can feel like a program for getting the minutae of life under control. Even if you know, on some level, that you have to die.<\/p>\n

But then the person in control comes to India and the expectations game goes to crap. Society won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cooperate. Objects won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cooperate. Your body won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cooperate. So you have to work with your immediate intelligence. You have to trust your gut, and trust other people. You have to let go of your way of doing things. If that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your dragon, then India is a great place to find her. And with her, your entitlement, your hard-heartedness, the dark and light sides of your survival drives, your relaxed stability, and possibly your love. And maybe you also find something else\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 a particular energy that comes out of this<\/i> particular vortex and seeps into you and becomes the\u00c2\u00a0gift<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0you take with you when you go. That energy comes in and really makes its mark if you intend to pick up on it and let it change you on a cellular level. Spending all energy collecting other keep-sakes (stuff, asana porn-shots, or even experiences) can distract from this.<\/p>\n

For me, India has been a different sort of journey \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one of an observing\/exploring introvert learning to be in community and in deep friendships. And one of a hard-headed academic + rebellious preacher’s kid surrendering to a lineage, and to her love for a teacher and a community. The study-trips here have called me out in different ways, time and again.<\/p>\n

In any case, India is spiritually intelligent in the extreme\u00e2\u20ac\u201c intelligent in a way westerners don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even believe exists. The understanding of individual and collective and (yes) cosmic consciousness that this society has developed reveals in contrast the special backwardness of the western mind. India is also violent in the extreme. The obvious, somehow normalized mass suffering and inequality here could shake you to the core, break you, show you just what are the limits of your compassion and then push those limits a mile or three. But here is the thing. Unlike almost all other beings in India, if you are my student and you visit, you will have a hidden support system. You will never, unlike many other beings here, have to sleep in a gutter. You will never be sick without access to care and love and the best of western and eastern medicine. Somebody has got your back.<\/p>\n

But forget about that. If this particular strange trip is one you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re called to, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get the best mileage if you take the big steps alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you do your pilgrimage it’s not easy. Nothing will disturb you.\u00c2\u00a0Your aim is to see God. If it becomes easy it is not a pilgrimage. -Sharath Jois, January 2014   There are structures of experience so deep that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sort of wrong to talk about them. Wrong or ridiculous. Taboo either way. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ashtangaannarbor.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ashtangaannarbor.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ashtangaannarbor.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ashtangaannarbor.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ashtangaannarbor.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ashtangaannarbor.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ashtangaannarbor.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ashtangaannarbor.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ashtangaannarbor.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}