31-Day Meditation Challenge: Day 14

Welcome! This is the fourteenth lesson to a 31-Day Meditation Challenge recently recorded in July of 2020 entitled "Seek and Find Within." The audio recording is divided into an opening discourse and a guided meditation.

The lifted arm penance! The ancient techniques of yoga are something else; bizarre, powerful, and effective.

Enjoy.

Transcript

Alright,

What's up everybody?

So,

Day 14 of your challenge.

I'm very excited about today and tomorrow because this is our first,

What I'm calling,

Prachin sub-challenges.

And so,

Prachin,

Just so you know,

Prachin means ancient in Sanskrit and sort of the ancient form of yoga.

Yoga has always been an insanely systematic approach to meditation.

Prachin,

The ancient form,

Predates by far the image of yoga as postures.

It predates the idea of yoga as breath work.

And so,

The penances,

The sorts of things that these ancient first-generation yogis were doing are very unique and I would say bizarre to the modern mind and were probably bizarre to the people,

The villagers,

The city dwellers that lived alongside them.

But they hold,

They held value and they might hold value,

We'll see after today and tomorrow,

To students of this art of mind and self and peace and maybe even soul.

And so what we're going to do today is called Urdhva Bhuj.

Urdhva means upward and then bhuj is arm.

And so,

You're going to hold your arm up and over your head for about 20 minutes.

And so,

Just to sort of like inform you on the validity of this,

Why we're doing this,

You know,

What are the benefits,

What are the challenges going to be.

Hatha yoga.

Hatha yoga means force and so the mentality of these ancient people that really took it upon themselves before there were any systems that outlined the process of self-discovery,

This is thousands and thousands of years ago.

They believed that they had to force themselves and force the soul specifically,

Their true self out from the caverns of their sticky,

Confused minds.

They had to extract by force the soul or the self,

That which we rely upon,

You know,

To conjure up our potential.

They had to pull it out of the body as well.

And so to do that,

They mortified the body.

They broke the body down.

And this culture still exists in all sorts of spaces from ballerinas that,

You know,

Push their bodies to the limit to perform their art to the best of their ability and in that express the potential of their creative self to endurance runners or extreme sports athletes.

When we see people that push the body and sort of do it with a smile,

The audience,

Right,

The audience is enchanted by that spectacle.

And so these sorts of yogis were doing the same thing.

Why though?

What's the idea?

The idea is that as a powerful meditator,

The mentality is,

And this is authentic,

It isn't supposed to be forced,

It isn't supposed to be a rationalization,

It's supposed to be instinctive to a certain point.

The mentality is that everything is bliss.

And so if we go back to the Buddha story,

The Buddha saw an old man,

He saw a sick man,

And he saw a dead man.

These are all sort of experiences of suffering.

And the Buddha at that point was not a spiritualist.

He was a prince,

A prince that was sort of protected with indulgence and pleasure.

So he couldn't see the bliss in that.

And he was perplexed and traumatized by it and in that set out to discover the solution.

But a master meditator theoretically would experience all of that as deep,

Deep joy while it happens.

Death,

Pain,

Illness,

Anger,

Pandemic,

Everything is joy because everything is an expression of the divine trying to hatch itself into the physical experience.

Everything is just sort of the manifestation of a physical bliss,

A physical miracle that can be felt through the nervous system with a trained mind.

So when the yogis would keep their arms up and over their head for nine years,

Ten years,

For the rest of their lives decade after decade as the arm mummifies,

That process you'll find is arduous and extremely uncomfortable.

But by doing that they prove to themselves and to anyone who comes across them because they still have a smile on their face,

They still praise reality even though they've sort of de-disabled themselves.

They prove to themselves that they at least see everything as divine.

They at least feel everything as bliss and the penance,

The arm lifted in the air is just evidence of that sort of inner experience or that inner perspective.

So that's what we're going to try to do today.

What's actually going to happen,

I think the biology of this might help you interact with the challenge.

All that's happening is you're holding your arm up and over your head is that you're building lactic acid in the tissues and that acidity starts to burn.

That's it.

You're not damaging anything.

The fatigue is just literal acidity in the tissues becoming more and more and more intense to the point that it becomes intolerable and the mind sort of recoils,

Confidence immediately dissolves and you're going to want to pull the arm down.

But if you can look into that same sensation and connect to it and overcome it,

It's going to force you to rely upon something deeper inside yourself.

And that's sort of it.

That deeper thing,

That deeper position is the space in which you will be able to perceive bliss from a meditative or spiritual lens.

And so it's one and the same.

The last thing I want to say is rely upon the techniques that you've learned up until this point,

Especially when your willpower starts to falter.

And so if you're sitting here,

Arm up and over your head and you want to take the arm down,

Before you do that,

Recommit to your stillness.

Before you do that,

Re-engage your posture.

Before you do that,

Maybe connect to the seven directions of your breath or inhale,

Hold your breath,

Chant the om or hum to feel resonance and hold your breath at the bottom of your exhale.

All of these techniques are going to sort of enrich that position of meditation and maybe create a little space for you to see this acidity,

This burning from,

You know,

In a more sort of,

You know,

Pleasurable light.

And that's sort of it.

I'm going to be doing it alongside you so you're not alone in this challenge.

And yeah,

Let's get into this today.

So Prachiin,

Ancient yoga sub-challenge.

Alright everyone,

So let's do the right arm,

Tomorrow we'll do the left arm.

Keep it even.

So right arm up and over head.

Left wrist on the knee.

And so at this point,

The wrist on the knee becomes deeply helpful.

If you press your wrist a little bit more powerfully into the knee,

You're going to feel that the arm supports the chest and as the chest and torso are supported,

The weight,

The burden of the right arm becomes lessened.

Relax the hand,

Soften the muscles in the arms.

Shut your jaw,

Press your tongue into the back of your two front teeth.

Tuck your chin in slightly,

Decompress the base of the skull.

So it's all the same instruction,

Except your right arm is lifted into the air.

Eyes are closed.

Slow down the breath.

And so we'll walk through this like we've walked through every meditation.

First connect to your stillness.

I will not move.

I will not adjust.

Every impulse to fidget,

Every impulse to squirm,

Every impulse to drop this arm is an expression of reactivity and judgment.

It's an expression of rejection,

Which means that we don't see this moment as fully perfect.

We don't see this moment as supremely good.

Some part of it is wrong and therefore I am attempting to escape it by moving.

Oh boy.

Now boost your posture,

Tilt your hips forward.

Use the abdomen as you exhale,

Drawing it in towards the spine to create buoyancy in the torso.

Again press your left wrist into the knee a bit more firmly.

Bring a finger to the left thumb.

As exhausted as the right arm will become,

Keep the left hand,

The posture,

The mudra,

Gentle and graceful.

Next set of techniques.

Seven directions to your inhale.

Seven directions to your exhale.

Slow down the breath.

Already the right arm might start to feel heavy,

Heated,

Uncomfortable.

But adjacent to the right arm,

The torso,

The peace,

Fullness and calm of the breath.

So you have your choice what to focus on,

What to feel.

There's nothing more that can really be said.

Use your willpower.

See it through as best you can.

If you need to hold the arm up with the other hand,

Do so.

If you need to drop the right arm and take a break,

Of course,

Do so.

I encourage you to hold your breath when it gets super intense.

You'll find that it proves beneficial.

The last little detail is throughout the process I'd like you to use the mudra.

I am the same.

I am the same as this pain.

I am the same as this fear.

I am the same as this confusion.

I am the same as this fire.

I am the same.

Alright,

Signing off,

We have about 18 minutes left.

Deep inhale.

Slow exhale.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

You you you you you you you you you you you and in that stillness,

Relax your body,

Especially the arm being held up.

Let it tremble.

Feel it.

Now start to deepen the breath.

Very,

Very slow.

Exaggerate the inflation of the diaphragm and notice that despite the intensity of heat or cramping or quivering in the arm,

The euphoria and pleasantness of the breath is still there.

Stay committed to the breath to provoke your parasympathetic nervous system.

A calming response that will also affect the mind and diminish worry,

Diminish anxiety.

Now into the nitty-gritty.

When the arm is held up and you are provoking an experience of suffering and stress onto yourself second to second to second to second,

Every moment that you endure that self-inflicted stress,

Are you not relying upon a deeper position?

Something further in than the body?

Notice that.

And so that position is the bull's-eye of your practice.

That position when you are rooted in it firmly is immune to death,

Immune to illness,

Immune to decay.

And the experiment of keeping your arm up and over your head proves it to you.

For flashes,

It's okay.

You have a little bit left.

Again,

Hold the arm if you have to support it.

Relax the arm if you must.

Repeat the mantra,

I am the same.

You you you you you you All right everyone,

Two more minutes.

Everyone reach your arm up into the sky and straighten it out.

Pull the shoulder blades away from the ears,

Broaden the chest.

Now slow breaths.

A huge part of this practice is learning to create space or disassociate from the external expressions of ourselves.

The body is an external physical expression,

The mind is also an external and physical expression.

Meditation is about finding that distinct point inside us that is neither of those things.

And from there we gain perspective.

From there we gain the ability to perceive bliss,

Truth,

Soul.

What does that mean?

That means we embrace all things inclusively as good.

And you can't say that until you can tolerate physical distress as good.

If you can't embrace the sensations of acidity in your arm as good,

Then there's no way you can embrace the more damaging dimensions of life as good.

And so this is the penance.

Slow down the breath.

Feel it tingling and buzzing.

Let's take five more breaths together.

Focus on the tingling and buzzing in the arm in the same way that you focus on the tingling and buzzing on your forehead when you press your thumb knuckles into the forehead at the end of your practice.

It's the same sensation.

Three more breaths.

Slow it down,

Repeat the mantra,

I am the same.

All right,

Straighten the arm.

One more inhale all the way up.

Feel the muscles tighten.

Squeeze the fist.

I have control.

This is nirodha,

Self-restraint.

Very slowly with a tall spine,

Bring the right arm down.

Wrist lands on knees.

Straighten both arms.

Mudras in both hands.

Close the eyes.

Now repeat the mantra,

I am the same.

When my arm is up in pain,

When my arm is down in comfort,

I am the same.

Bring your hands to heart center,

Relax your shoulder blades down your back.

So maybe the body is in pain,

Maybe the mind is fearful,

Anxious,

Negative,

But there's a part of us deep inside that only observes,

And I hope this challenge,

This exercise clarified that to you.

This is what the Hatha yogis meant by forcing the soul out,

By breaking the body apart.

It helped them feel that space.

Thumb knuckles to third eye center.

Again press your thumbs into the skin of your forehead,

That little burst of nerve sensation.

Isn't it similar enough to the acidity in the shoulder?

The trembling as stabilizer muscles fatigue.

It's all a vibration.

So a huge part of meditation as a physical practice is learning to taste or feel or sense that buzzing experience,

And it feels good.

That is the bliss.

Let's take one more inhale.

Focus on it.

One more exhale.

Hold your breath,

Release your wrists to your knees.

Hold your breaths for as long as possible.

Collect CO2,

Which is also acidic,

And when you have to inhale,

Breathe slowly through the nose,

And again hold your breath.

And once you've inhaled,

Lungs are full,

And you're holding your breath and buzzing,

Repeat the mantra again.

I am the same whether I'm holding my breath,

Whether I'm breathing normally.

The chemistry in my blood is different.

The signals of my nervous system are different.

The thoughts streaming through my mind are different,

But I am the same.

Alright everyone take an exhale.

With your next breath in,

Open the eyes.

I am still meditating.

I'm still the same.

Reviews

Ow but a good ow. I did have to lower my arm for a moment as it went all tingly, but what a way to focus! I love Hatha yoga (I think that's what you mentioned at the start). Long holds, lots of focus. Thank you.☮️💖🙏