Once upon a time ‘Inner Engineering’ was ‘Inner Bricolage’....
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Engineers build structures based on rules. Engineers detest any play or variations in their structures they build. Persons who mangle their inner structures of well being, need engineers who can help them carefully rebuild with precision, is the moral passion of these Engineers. Assemblage of Asanas together in set patterns of time and appreciating their effects in a deprived state repeatedly over and over again is the structure the engineers purport to build in the life style. The untold rules laid out by the Engineers are: any play in the structures will generate Anxiety once again leading to the original unhappy state.
Inner Bricoleur constructs structures of well being with whatever means which is available to him with careful disregard for any rules or norms. Play and variations do not generate any undue anxieties. A prick of a thorn, a bite of a snake, a rustle of a leaf then acquires a special meaning in forever redeeming scheme of things with no centrality or tiresome linear narratives. Most if not all inner engineers were once Inner Bricoleurs.
Mahamudras and the art of thumb sucking.
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Kriya is a set of Asanas and breathing practices put together in a specific order to elicit desired responses under careful monitoring to suit the needs of a individual relevant to his or her circumstances. Running a standardised kriya program with a corporate vigour with excesses of moral passion can yield spurious results. The ‘Shambavi maha mudra’, a flagship program run by Isha organisation is an interesting social experiment aided by the internet technology which has spread far and wide under the guise of spiritual health.
This article is to convey the understandings and experiences of it and some generalisations that goes with it.
Yoga and Kriya practices often claim to liberate the practitioners from the clutches of desiring processes and thereby facilitating to achieve more peaceful states.
The tension that builds up as a result of full bladder and loaded colon trigger powerful urges to eliminate. And this remains a more familiar and common experience. The urge to ejaculate and to relieve the sexual tension through sexual act or masturbation is far more complex of all eliminative reflexes due to layers of socio cultural taboos associated with it.
There is a different kind of pay off, if we conceptualise ‘desiring - relieving ‘ process using the yogic and tantric terms. As soon as a desire sets in the body, the smooth and involuntary muscles around certain areas goes in to a subtle spasm creating a cascade of events to follow till the sensation is relieved.
The irritability of the bowel and bladder increases proportionally to the desire to control an event explains the primacy of Mooladhara and Swadishtana chakra areas. And similar irritabilities and subtle spasms of gut ( Manipura) , heart and lungs ( Anahata), throat ( Visuddha) and cognitive areas ( Ajna and Sahasrara ) are traditionally understood as the seats of desiring process.
The desire that sets in any of these centres creates a subtle spasm is a granthi or a knot. Till the knot is relieved the person is stated to remain in an active restless state. The Kriya routines makes one aware of these subtle sensations and also trains them to avail relief from the blocks by regulating breathing , stretching and holding the breath in certain positions and through some specific techniques.
To look at one such technique in detail may give some insights. Tightening the anal sphincter and the bladder outlet area and holding the breath as long as possible generates a wave of sensation that is similar to the sensations that follow an act of sexual intercourse. The wave of excitement that follows is said to relieve all the tensions across the chakra areas and promote an Inner well being.
Does regular practitioner of this regulated internal auto sex or inner masturbation likely to become more adept in handling the so called desiring process or is he likely to become an alien of a being for moving away from some innate reflexes?
Of Noses and Genitals:
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One of those rainy days moment, where I keep lazily connecting the thoughts related to ‘sex and the nose’. Nosology , the study of diseases has got nothing to do with this muse. This muse was more geared to understand how the capillaries in the nose and sexual organs dilate causing erection and congestion. ‘Honeymoon Rhinitis’ informs an excessive bout of romantic indulgences does congest the nasal mucosa more readily to a few. Viagara ( Sildenafil ) and L Arginine food supplements supposed to increase the blood flow to the capillaries of the genitals do exert their systemic effect and produce nasal congestion as a common side effect. And then there are a vulnerable few who get nose blocks merely entertaining a sexual thought. And for a few orgasm triggers a bout of sneezing. From sexual thoughts to orgasms there are links to suggest increased capillary flow to congest the noses and the genitals follow a common pathway. And I once met a young female sannyasini who was intrigued to find out why her guru was obsessed in making sure the air flow was equal in both nostrils most of the time. It is leading to think if keeping the nasal passages clear is a means to ensure keeping the capillary vasodilation under check, so no desires from the unconscious seeps in to the surface and creates a hard time for noses and genitals. And strangely physical measures to do the opposite like using decongestants ( Oxymetazoline sprays) to vasoconstrict the capillaries to keep the nasal passages free on regular basis, reflexively produces more blocks leading to conditions like ‘Rhinitis medicamentosa’ for a few. It will be nice to end a muse like this calamitously concluding all breathing techniques are geared up to regulate the capillary vasodilation to the noses and vice versa. And to suppress is to reflexively overstimulate in certain instances.
Bed time stories for the bored :
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Simon Baron Cohen views persons with exceptional mentalistic abilities and high linguistic abilities ( traditionally called autistic) as well as their opposites , persons who speak more through their actions and emotions more readily rather than languages ( traditionally personality problems) have issues with Empathy. ( Ref. Zero degree of empathy)
The concept of empathy has issues with itself in the first place. Cultures that position and thrive on having a clear boundaries of self and others invest their efforts to create disorders that do not fit the ethos. Hence the distinct absence or enhanced tolerance of so called autism and personality disorder problems in the non-west. ( Ref . None )
Iain McGilchrist tells us a different story. Cultures that condition their people solely on the books tend to produce more disorders and discourses, to suit their fast paced growth. ( Ref. Master and Emissary)
Lacan ( Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst) posits Mirror plays a major role or acts as trigger towards formation of Self. ( Ref. Four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis)
Julia Kristeva ( Psychoanalyst and poet ) reappeared in my dream and expressed that goddesses have their own weaknesses. Like Parvathi was not too fussed about breast feeding the hungry waif Young poet Thirugnanasambandar, thereby discounting clear concepts of self and others. Gods have weaknesses for hunters and untouchable Kannapars. Goddesses have weaknesses for young and gifted poets and scholars. ( Ref. Dreams)
Was Jesus a poet, a hunter , or a lost baby or does he fall in to the mirroring self away from mom, Parvathi and His cosmic mom Mary...
Zzzzzzzz.....
Mirror - The reflected Self theme, highlighted , how an infant starts mirroring the emotions of mom. Some functional anomalies in the mirror neurones ( of parent and child dyad) in Autism are hypothesised to the so called difficulties in empathy. Similar anomalies in empathy are postulated in certain amoral behaviours of personality disorders too.
Mary and infant Jesus as depicted by Orazio Samacchini , 16th century Italian painter. Some reflections on the painting from Museum.
