Integrated Spiritual Practice

 You might have seen shows about archaeological digs in Greece or the Near East where each layer of rubble was another historical era of Troy or Jericho or Babylon going back thousands of years. Our bodies work in a similar manner. Once you start doing some sort of bodywork you start uncovering nerve and muscle layers containing memories going back many decades. It is relatively well known that if one meditates regularly over a long enough period of time that you dig up old memories in the brain, get flashbacks, dejavu or similar of childhood traumas. Mix meditation with asanas, intense massage, tai chi or similar and perhaps special energy raising techniques and over time you will reexperience your worst emotional states of fear, anger, suspicion at times in rapid fire sequence at the slightest provocation from your environment, thereby cleansing these past memories stored in tissues. I have been opening up lately my sacral chakra below my navel and enjoying some odd states of yore. I had to either sleep these things off or do stretching. The original experiences were generally traumatic and difficult from hard life phases as a youth or young adult. By doing body work one can see these problems for what they are. I wonder often what purpose my practices have until I hit such a snag and see the benefits of overcoming those deep, dark periods of life where unhappiness was normal. Apparently the daily slog hides ist traces in brain and muscle tissues, waiting to be excavated at a later date like a Trojan War. Usually we get into spiritual or religious groups to experience higher stes of happiness or even transcendence. People might sing in pews and pray or meditate happily next to each other weekly for an hour and pretend that everything is alright, that the new routine plus the camaraderie is of great help. We may be taught special techniques of meditation and mystical prayer to have a greater experience of God. Pleasure increases of course as we learn to experience bliss through higher concentration and cleansing of our minds and bodies. This prepares us for sometimes longer ‚dark nights‘ and sudden dark memories and shudders which overtake us as we uncover deeper layers. The deeper we dig, the higher we can climb. Having healed our old neuroses we can move on to higher things. Contradictory attitudes smelling of hypocrisy or self doubt could be well due to having one high goal of holiness, ecstatic bliss and spiritual mastery but building on an old foundation in our innermost tissue’s memories of fear, anger, regret, suspicion, shame, hatred which have not been dealt with thoroughly. To me it seems that a multidisciplinary approach is best to get at these problems effectively. Meditation with mental exercises gets at brain states, memories, practices; bodywork stretches, limbers, contorts thereby releasing and loosening stress; Pranayama or energy work heats and activates chakras, meridians and tissues generally. If only one approach is taken or two we might not acheive success. Even more might be necessary like dietary changes, aerobics and muscle work and song, dance, music, creative expression, social involvement. We cannot deliberately pinpoint when and where a trauma occurred in terms of a certain tissue/energy/mind layer in connection with our past history and utilize a technique on a certain day to get at just that experience( perhaps some therapies are capable of this). We must prepare ourselves in a general way. Essentially if the period before establishing our practice is to be cleansed, say life phase 1 (0-30 say) and until the intensity accelerates it may actually be further decades as in my case until we seem to really dig out these problems thoroughly so that essentially the intervening years after initiation of the practice also contain much trauma to be worked out. I imagine when one can get to having a neutral neurotic accumulation( living in the moment, no new negative karma buildup) this would be very useful sort of like being a professional athlete ‚ in the zone‘. In one part of the body and/or psyche one might have a positive buildup of energy while parallel to that there might be a negative accumulation. One has too many food or sexual desires centred around the lower chakras or anger occasionally but parallel to this is ever more full of love, curiosity, creativity and bliss states in the upper chakras. This discussion then turns from a general pep talk to an instructional one. Connectedness between the chakras is crucial, so- called ‚ chakra- balancing‘ if one is to avoid the left hand not knowing what the right is doing or parts of the body pulling in opposite directions. If my sexual energy fires my crown chakra and vice- versa then bliss and sexuality can be complementary and non negative. Otherwise our head might remain in the clouds and our lower body mired in dirt.  There are endless paths within the body between the chakras( major 7 and minor ones with nadis in between). So we do all sorts of yoga asanas to open up paths between various points. Pranayama opens these up in a general way. I find tai chi also useful. One speaks about feeling energy or bliss states of non- doing usually reserved for meditation while in motion, so that meditation practice can be extended from those short periods to the rest of the day. Tai chi helps learn this practice of meditation in motion more effectively. Sedentary lifestyle is not useful as the body is meant to be used to its limits. If I do yoga and tai chi for fitness then this will increase my physical capacity in terms of heart, lungs, endurance and flexibilty in a job situation. I imagine few yogis or tai chi practitioners are labourers, there existing a class divide in this regard and that this was probably always the case. However monks were often told that, at a certain point, they were not making progress and given a job doing shepherding or forest work for a year or so. After 15 years as a yogi at a desk job, biking to work and now 10 years as a janitor, I have found the active life to be much more productive on the whole. Massive, continual emotional and physical stress much like play of childhood, including loose banter with colleagues is natural as in animal life. Desk jobs staring at a screen with the occasional mumble to a colleague do little to promote resilience and emotional depth. Apparently also, in additional to the last comment, once awakened by pranayama, a superficial flow of kundalini can be deepened into the tissues, uncovering further neurotic layers, heightening blissful states by an active physical and social life. Muscle action promotes chemical and electrical activity. Social contacts in general do much the same. Passivity slows the progress towards enlightenment. Monastery life or sitting in a cave might sound good to the introvert seeking an escape from self imposed isolation and loneliness in a state of ecstatic bliss but the opposite is the reality. Full participation in a flexible real time environment integrated into a spiritual life is the most productive possibility available.