31-Day Meditation Challenge: Day 25

Welcome! This is the twenty-fifth 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 next sub-challenge is prostration. Posture is an ancient language. When we assume the prostration the body can provoke feelings of humility, vulnerability, and surrender. We may embrace it. We may be numb to it. We may reject it. That is our work.

Enjoy.

Transcript

Okay,

So happy you're all here.

Day 25 upon us.

Tonight's gonna be another Prachin challenge.

And so just to refresh your memories,

Prachin is ancient yoga.

And the ancient yogis used the body,

Especially sort of like testing the body and pushing the body through physical discomfort to empower their relationship to what,

At this point,

I hope you all can,

Are becoming more familiar with,

Which is this sense or this position or this experience within yourself where there is less resistance,

Less analysis,

Less judgment of your physical experience,

Your environment,

Your life,

The world,

And most importantly,

Your sort of like psychology.

And so you're sort of in this state of unique openness and tolerance and embrace of all the external dimensions of your life.

And so again,

The ancient yogis,

The Prachin,

Felt that pushing the body and sort of embracing extreme discomfort helped them connect to this space.

And this mentality rings true even through modern culture.

You can associate it,

I would say,

Very easily with the,

If you're not a runner,

The experience of a runner's high.

And so you're sort of being pushed through this endurance experience of physical struggle and all of a sudden,

Because of that,

Endorphins are released into the body and then the brain sort of repositions itself into this mode of embrace.

And so this is the Prachin or the ancient way.

What we're gonna work on today,

The last Prachin challenge was lifting the arm up and overhead,

Experiencing that acidity,

That carbonic and lactic acid,

And using that fire to help us focus our minds on our immediate experience.

This Prachin challenge will be a little less strenuous,

But still strenuous.

This is called pranam.

And pranam is prostration.

And so within the culture of India,

Especially in the relationship between a devotee and the divine or a devotee and their teacher,

A guru,

A devotee will prostrate,

Meaning they'll drop to their knees,

They'll drop their forehead to the floor,

Maybe they'll touch the feet of the guru or sort of reach their arms out towards the symbol of the divine.

And it might be as simple as sort of bringing our hands to heart center and bowing the chin down to the collarbone.

But all of these gestures are signifying that this person in the moment of bowing has renounced their own self-will.

So it's not about the eye,

It's not about the individual.

And it's more about their life,

Their vitality,

All of their energy,

All of their thought power.

All of that is being redirected into honoring and servicing that which they believe is greater than they are.

And so the main point behind this is that our relationship to this experience that I hope you're all starting to feel this openness and this tolerance and embrace for the environment,

Our sensations,

And again,

Most importantly,

Our psychological experience,

Hinges on selflessness.

That the more we act in the service of others,

And this is something to sort of consider deeply,

It's easy to consider at a glance,

But when we really analyze the motivations behind why we do the things we do,

I imagine what most of us will find is that we act in service of ourselves or in service of our immediate family or our tight social groups.

But the more we can expand that and act in sort of to promote benevolence,

Promote compassion,

Promote peace and prosperity to more and more and more people estranged from our immediate social groups or immediate families,

The happier we will be.

And this is,

I think,

A huge leap of faith because as animals,

We are programmed to act selfishly.

And so pranam is a way of provoking that selflessness,

Not necessarily through literal action,

A selfless act,

But through the gesturing of our bodies.

And so the last thing I wanna share before we get into this,

This sort of ritual fundamentally is body languaging.

What we'll find is that as living organisms,

We've evolved through sort of the branching of species and many species,

Animal species share a common language in the gesturing and posturing of the body.

And one sort of common,

One way the body sort of communicates the idea of selflessness or at least sacrificing the position of the individual is by bowing.

And so if you think of an alpha wolf and a challenger wolf,

Whether it's a beta or omega,

When that alpha wolf and that omega or beta wolf are sort of in a confrontation,

Whoever surrenders,

It might be the alpha wolf that surrenders to a new challenger.

But when the moment of surrender is initiated,

That wolf will bow,

It'll drop its head and sort of signal to the force that is greater than they are,

That they are submitting.

They're submitting to a higher power.

And so when we get into our prostration,

Into pranam,

We get to drop to our knees or bring our head to the ground,

You can also lay in shavasana or just bring your hands to heart center and bring your chin to your collarbone,

That languaging,

That physical reshaping of the body in time if you're open to it should promote or encourage this visceral sense of I am less than blank.

I am less than the world.

I am less than this practice.

I am less than my higher self or the pure goodness that resides within me and all people.

So I just want you to consider again that the posture and the shaping of your body,

If you commit to it seriously can provoke the mind.

Cool,

And so again,

This is pranam,

Prachin is ancient and this is a very,

Very old way of interacting with yoga and generating new modes of thought.

The key point to all of this today is selflessness.

And the yogis sort of label this or define this,

Modern yogis as egodectomy.

At a certain point in a meditator's journey,

They learn to sort of incise or sort of cut out their own self from the process and understand that the real journey of this process is about moving towards benevolence and compassion towards other.

And again,

Simply if we reposition our bodies in a way that historically and evolutionarily communicates that idea to us,

It becomes more likely that we will be able to enact those virtues or that mentality into ourselves in the world.

So what you're gonna get into today,

You can either drop into something like a child's pose.

So bring your knees to the floor,

Extend your chest towards the floor,

Arms reach out in front of you,

This is option one.

You can lay flat on the floor face down,

Which might be uncomfortable,

But again,

Prachin is about challenging the body.

Bring your forehead to the floor,

Tuck your chin in so you're not squishing your nose,

Arms reach out straight in front of you,

This is the traditional way of expressing full prostration or full devotion to that which is higher than you.

You can lay on your back in Shavasana or you can bring your hands to heart center and bring your chin to your collarbone.

So any of these four shapes should provoke a sense of selflessness and devotion to a higher power or a higher way.

Okay,

And I would encourage you to take the most extreme expression,

And that is face down,

Laying down on your belly,

Forehead to the floor,

Arms out in front of you.

And so let me just walk you through the physical,

Physical experience of the shape.

Let's start with the most extreme shape first.

If you're laying down,

Face towards the floor,

Arms extended in front of you,

Tuck your chin in towards your collarbone so the pressure builds on your forehead,

But you lift the nose up away from the floor,

And in that you can breathe easily.

Arms are extended fully forward,

Relax your body.

Deep breaths into the belly.

As you exhale,

Feel the belly pull into the spine,

Supporting the lower back.

If you're in child's pose,

Your legs are bent,

Knees spread wide,

Just make sure that the distance between your knees creates comfort in your shape.

Again,

Chin tucks in,

Arms reach forward.

You can also lay in Shavasana,

Very simple,

Laying on your back,

Face pointing towards the ceiling.

And the final shape,

Hands at heart center,

Chin dropped to the collarbone.

And so this will be generally unguided,

And the hope is that your body will communicate the ideas of this ancient practice to you,

But all of it orbits selflessness.

A mature person learns to operate and exist for the benefit of others.

And even if this idea is just sort of considered and not necessarily enacted within us as individuals,

If it's just considered that maybe one day I will act with more benevolence and concern for others over myself,

That is enough to enrich our practice.

All right,

Slow down your breath.

And so let's rely on the other lessons of the previous practices to help us open up into this Prachin Pranam,

Ancient prostration.

Moving from yesterday's practice,

Whether we are in a formal pose,

Seated upright,

Or driving in our cars,

Eyes open,

Or laying down face first on the floor,

We are still focused on what?

More than anything,

The tingling sensations of the body.

And so find that common denominator.

Now breathe deeply into the belly,

Feel the stomach swell like a gourd as you inhale.

As you exhale,

Feel the entire rib cage and torso shrink in towards the spine.

Every breath in comes with a surge of wakefulness.

Every exhale,

Physical heaviness,

And comfort.

Now from time to time,

When the mind eventually does wander,

Think of selflessness,

Think of devoting your mental power,

Your physical power,

To that which is greater than you.

To family,

To society,

To those in need,

And most importantly,

To the world itself.

And that in this moment of physical prostration,

You are essentially bowing and revering that which is more significant than the individual.

Try to feel that.

And again,

Put that into context by thinking about it.

Once you feel that in your heart,

In the same way that you could conjure up the emotion of gratitude,

Once you feel that in your heart,

You come back to the sensations of your body.

All right,

Everyone take a deep breath in.

And a slow breath out.

And a slow breath out.

And a slow breath out.

And a slow breath out.

And a slow breath out.

And a slow breath out.

Slow down the breath.

And first,

Just notice your reaction to the physical shape and maybe the discomfort that is arising,

The nuisances of the position.

That's a simple,

Simple thing to overcome.

It's only uncomfortable.

Certainly not more than keeping your arm up and over your head.

To breathe steadily,

Embrace the sensations by at the very least appreciating that there's something to focus on.

That they heat up this moment physically and pull your mind into deeper presence.

Now more importantly,

Notice the emotional rejection of this shape.

The strange anonymous disapproval.

And so this is deeper and more archaic.

The theory is your sympathetic nervous system,

Your fight or flight response is triggering in resistance to you submitting to an imagined hypothetical power.

That your biology compels you to ascend a dominance hierarchy.

Your biology insists that you fight for yourself and stand up egoically.

Slow down the breath,

Relax your muscles,

And embrace the concept,

The idea that your existence is most fulfilling when it is in service of others.

And the most significant other is the world itself.

Again,

Slow down the breath.

Either you are in a phase of openness and embrace,

Focusing on the tingling sensations of the body,

The new variant shape,

The ideas mean nothing because your attention is rooted in the internal and the subtle sensations of your experience.

Perfect.

If the mind is reacting,

Rejecting the shape on a physical or conceptual level,

There is an opportunity to deepen your method.

The shape of your body is an evolutionary symbol of surrender,

The submission of ego,

The renouncing of position.

If you can embrace the sensations and experience of this pose,

It symbolizes the embrace of selflessness.

The core idea again is that selfishness operating through self-will is the plight of our experience.

A meditator learns to exist compassionately in the service of others.

Just considering this idea and being open to this idea as a way of life is a huge step forward.

A few more minutes here.

Deep breaths in,

Deep breaths out.

This is an exercise in symbolic selflessness.

Final breaths.

You are prostrating.

This is pranam.

You are prostrating in front of what?

Your room,

Trees,

The sky,

The moment.

You are prostrating in front of reality.

Atman,

The individual soul,

Is bowing in front of Brahman,

Reality at large.

Try to sense that.

As conceptual as it is,

It's true.

And now take your last few breaths,

Expanding your natural sense of gratitude for the moment into reverence,

Into an emotion of worship.

I bow before the experience of my existence.

I bow before the platform that supports this existence and enables me,

Provides the opportunity to exist selflessly.

Understanding that journey into selflessness is a journey,

That we move towards it step by step,

The yogis,

Hindus,

And Buddhists,

Lifetime by lifetime.

Three more breaths.

And now everyone within your mind,

Especially if you're laying down on your stomach,

Especially if you're in a child's pose,

I'm about to end my practice.

I'm about to disrupt my focus.

And in that,

My mind will scatter from the focal point of selflessness,

From reverence to reality,

Into distraction,

Into self-will,

Into judgment,

Into analysis,

Into waking consciousness.

All of that is about to happen.

And so in your next few breaths,

Open your eyes,

Reposition yourself into a seated position.

And immediately as you move the body and reposition yourself into your seat,

Notice the disbanding of the meditative state.

And in that,

Appreciate how sensitive it is,

How it hinges on stillness and hinges on internalization.

Once you reassume your seated position,

Take a few breaths.

Okay.

You can open your eyes.

And now everyone within your mind,

Especially if you're laying down on your stomach,

Into