The modern landscape
of New Delhi Indira Ghandi International Airport stunned me for a moment, then
reality checked in…I realized the land of mystery and mystics, the land of the
Vedas is rapidly becoming a global force with a fast pace economy and a growing
middle class that’s leading a country towards a new frontier. This airport with
its majestic stature was a fine example of progress towards that frontier. I am
in India for a two week ‘ Breath Practicum and Silent Retreat’ held at Swami
Rama Sadaka Gurukulum (SRSG)
in the northern city of Rishikesh, a population of over 100,000 people, a
city situated
at the foothills of the mighty Himalayan mountains and on the banks of the
scared Ganga river. Quickly passing
through customs and immigration at 2:30 in the morning there is not much to see
but the crowds of people waiting to greet the arrivals. I scanned the crowds for
the taxi drivers who we (myself and four others) would be spending the next 6-7
hours with traveling north to Rishikesh. There with the sign SRSG I saw them
and with a wave of the hand, a smile and very few words of English we greeted
each other and made our way to the taxis. During the 6-hour
drive to Rishikesh we saw villages wake up to the rising sun, witnessed hundreds
of truck trailers traveling the roads transporting goods and supplies to who
knows where, but one can imagine to all parts of India, and people performing their
morning spiritual rituals. Our experienced driver maneuvered between cows,
goats, dogs, cyclists, people walking, buses, tuk tuks, trucks and managed to
keep up with honking the horn at a relatively continuous ear piecing pace for
the FULL 7 hours or so. We arrived at the Ashram around 9:30 am, checked-in and
then had the remaining of the next two days to settle in, acclimatize and
prepare for the retreat.
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| Rishikesh on the banks of the Ganga |
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5:00 - 8:30 am
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Morning prayer,
hatha yoga and pranayama with guided meditation practice
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8:30 -9:30 am
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Breakfast
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9:30 -10 am
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Journaling /studies
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10:00 am-1:00 pm
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Workshops and a
pranayama practice
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1:00 -2:00 pm
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Lunch
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2:00 -3:00 pm
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Digestive breathing
practice
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3:00 -4:00 pm
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Workshop /
journaling/ studies
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4:00 -5:45 pm
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Tea, hatha yoga and
pranayama practice
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5:45 -6:45 pm
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Pranayama and silent
meditation practice
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7:00 -8:00 pm
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Supper
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8:00 -9:00 pm
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Evening lecture or
event and evening prayers
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In the next few pages
I’ll touch on some of the highlights of the breath and silence teachings and share
thoughts and reflections about this journey.
The Breath
Without relaxing the body, without establishing
diaphragmatic breathing, without calming the emotional states, without
constantly observing the state of the breath, the breath will not flow
smoothly. Swami Veda 2014
After reading the
above quote it became very evident that my breath was not flowing smoothly, and
to establish a constant smooth breath required dedicated self-awareness in
every thing I do. As I write this I am observing my breath and it’s definitely
not smooth, it stopped a few times and there are erratic pauses between inhale
and exhale. I invite you to take a moment and observe your breath.
When we consider that
breath is our constant companion from the very first moment of life, at birth
the baby inhales and then lets out the loudness, most joyful cry, while at
death the last breath is an exhalation, life is a continuous series of breaths.
It’s estimated that the average person takes about 21000 breaths per day breathing
at a rate of about 15-20 breaths per minute and the average human lifespan is
around 75 years. Consider the tortoise with a life span of over 250 years and
with a respiratory rate of 3-4 breaths per minute. Might it be possible for us
humans to have a longer life span if we slowed our breath?
In learning to
establish a smooth and even breath we were introduced to several breathing
techniques that developed awareness and strength of the diaphragm, assisted in
clearing the stagnant air out of the lungs and regulated the length of
inhalation and exhalation without having any pause between the breaths. We were
also instructed to observing the flow of the breath in the nostrils. This
reminded me of our last semester discussions on Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi and his theories on ‘flow’ where flow was associated with
the following:
- intense and focused concentration on the present moment
- merging of action and awareness
- a loss of reflective self-consciousness
- a sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity
- a distortion of temporal experience, one's subjective experience of time is altered, and
- experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding also referred to as autotelic experience
After focusing on the
flow of the breath for several minutes we were asked to observe the space when
the breath naturally transitioned from inhalation into exhalation and vise
versa. This practice is intended to further develop a more subtle awareness of
the breath, and in developing this awareness we become attuned to the subtle
degrees of consciousness we are otherwise not aware of. As I contemplated on
the notion of transition, it dawned on me that in every action, thought,
speech, muscular contraction, heart beat, eye-blink, there is a transition
phase, perhaps for a few microseconds, and in that time, a time of silence, if
we can develop a heightened awareness to this silence we become aware of the
present moment and we can actually live in this moment. I thought about our
cohort group and the countless transitions we’ve experienced during the last
two semesters. I invite you to spend a few moments and observe the transitions
between your actions, thoughts, speech, and breath and enjoy the stillness and
silence that emerges. Rest in this silent space.
Silence
Silence is not opposite to speech. Silence is a
state of mind. It is silencing the eyes, silencing the hands, silencing the
urge to indulge, to run around, to hear, to look. This is the kind of silence
we are going to practice. Silence
is the fullness of the mind; the mind filled with an energy stream flowing from
within. Swami Veda 2014
In
cultivating this silence we were inducted into, and practiced the art of
‘contemplative walking’. Contemplative walking is a method of conscious walking
with a harmonization between body, mind, breath and senses. The mind becomes
one pointed, relaxed and focus. For many of us normal daily walking is an
automatic process and we devote very little attention to the process. Not
surprisingly, we find ourselves tripping over things or stubbing our toes. When
we become very aware of our stride length, where our feet are placed, the speed
of our movements, where we are looking, what we are hearing, how much muscular
tension we are using, how coordinated and balanced we are, how high we lift our
foot off the ground, the depth of quiet and relaxation that envelops the mind
is astounding, stillness in movement. I invite you to practice a few moments of
contemplative walking and experience this deep quietude of the mind.
This silence was
continued throughout the following days in all of our activities. During meal
times we talked less, while we prepared our equipment for practical classes we
were quiet, in greeting each other we adopted the intention to be silent,
during our morning walks we listen for and enjoy the silence between all the
sounds we heard, and as we observed our breath we make it smooth and silent.
The calmness and slowing down was noticeable, the increase in energy was
subtle, not the energy of wanting to be active, instead an energy of inner reflection
and ‘fullness’, one of deep centering and focus, a type of energy I experienced
for the first time. If this was the impact of just a few days of ‘quiet’ time I
can only imagine what five years of silence would do, a practice that 81-year
old Swami Veda, the spiritual guide of the ashram is currently observing. Accompanying
this inner energy was a noticeable level of stillness in my everyday
activities. For example, while seated in the crossed legged position I observed
myself feeling more steady and stable instead of the customary shifting around
every few minutes to find a comfortable position. Or, while standing and
observing the surrounding nature there was a definite grounded-ness and stability,
with my attention fixed and focused on a single object, yet aware of, and
undisturbed by what was happening in the immediate surroundings. My breath also
slowed down to perhaps the slowest I’ve ever experienced. Was this the intense
and focused concentration on the present moment and merging of action and
awareness that Csikszentmihalyi described, a silent focused un-wandering mind!
Biofeedback and the mind wandering experiment
One of the
unique features of SRSG is the Meditation Research Institute (MRI), a
department whose mission is to investigate and document the various
meditative techniques and to test their effectiveness
After three weeks of
unlearning and letting go the habits of mind I am now understanding the reasons
why as a kid, I was asked almost daily to ‘sit in the corner’ after making
mischief, perhaps my parents knew that sitting still was good for my mind. In
today’s world we are constantly seeking quietude and we welcome the opportunity
to sit in a corner and embrace a few moments of stillness and silence. In the
absence of a quiet corner I take refuge in knowing that breath is always with
me.
Stay safe and warm
Until the next post
Namaste
Works Cited
Smallwood, J., &
Schooler, J. W. (2006). The Restless Mind. Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 132,
(No. 6), 946–958.
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