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You are here: Home / Practice Notes / Practice Notes: Shavasana

Practice Notes: Shavasana

December 16, 2016 by Beth Reninger Leave a Comment

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Theologue by Alex Grey

Image: Theologue by Alex Grey

Divine Laziness

A friend once reported to me that whenever he practices yoga asana, he tries to arrange it so that he can spend at least 30 minutes in shavasana. What good advice! I thought, at that time. And it has stuck with me …

Because as fun and potentially beneficial as it is exploring various asanas, the deepest sweetness comes in the release into shavasana, when our newly aligned and invigorated (physical and subtle) body knowingly melts into the ground: the physical support beneath it; and the ground of pure awareness within which all thoughts, sensations and perceptions arise and dissolve.

So typically I allow this dissolution and gentle drifting to continue, until it feels complete: ten minutes at least, sometimes twenty, thirty or more.

Just For Fun

If I’m in a devotional mood, I imagine surrendering all the components of my physical form to the infinite wisdom of the ground: the matrix of all-that-is. Then I invoke the blessings of the masters of love and light, throughout time and space: imagine these showering down upon and infusing my mind and body.

My current model of how such blessings work is that they are the Universal Intelligence that amplifies beneficial, auspicious interconnections; while at the same time turning down the volume on harmful, inauspicious interconnections. So while our body-minds (as aspects of an ultimately undifferentiated whole) have connections to every-thing, the strength of this or that connection can be modulated. Kind of like setting our preferences on Facebook – to allow only certain notifications to make their way into our inbox.

Not-Two

Just my mind’s picture of “what’s happening,” of course: arising within the “space” of knowing that the bestower of blessings and the recipient of blessings are, ultimately, not-two. And perhaps someday the distinction between harmful and beneficial body-mind connections will cease to be relevant?

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