“ Not two” only One: Perfect Participation in the Perfect Union of Opposites… is Yoga
Mark Whitwell | Heart of Yoga
Consider this: in life, there is no left without right. Left does not deny right. Left intrinsically implies right. Left depends on the right to even exist. The left is an equal acknowledgment of the right.
Take this consideration to any opposites. of the natural world. Including strength & receptivity. They are “not two”, they are “one.” One life, one energy. The believed separate existence & identity of each opposite dissolves in the prior One in which each exists. Paradoxically, still each opposite fully exists in its own individuation and unique character and is fully loved in its own right, in the One.
Yoga sadhana is participation in the perfect union of opposites, which is already perfectly established as life itself. Not some process of “balancing” the stereotypes within yourself. Yes, the result is a greater spectrum of expression, as the constraints of gender constructs are outshone. But it is not a process of balancing at all, or gradually merging, for life’s opposites (which have nothing to do with gender) are always already in union. We use the word feminine: refers to one of these opposites, not at all to human constructs. I sympathize with the confusion that it is the same word.
The problem and destruction of humanity is imagining female-male concepts and identities are separate. That they exist independent of each other. In fact they do not. One does not & cannot exist without the other & is the substance & nurturing force of all form. Yet humanity lives as if they are separate identities. Male gender patterning has destroyed female, therefore destroyed himself and earth. It is the pandemic that has caused all pandemics.
The predoctrinal Yogas of participation in the given reality / or natural state is the way through this darkness.
Vedanta and Tantra are one. The great statement of advait (“not two”) of Vedanta is enacted upon by the “not two” of Tantra. The Tantra is not the play of opposites gradually merging. The Tantra is the actions of the One. The two dharmas came together in the 10th C. They are yours even now whatever happens in the checkerboard of mass imagined separation, one to the other in their interacting patterned webs of limit.
The predoctrinal Yogas of participation in the given reality / or natural state is the way through this darkness. They evolved in wisdom times, cultural human treasures long gone, where male female forms were know to be obviously equal and opposite. Where one empowered the other in and as the One life, in eternal mutual exchange, the sap of life springing forth, in same sex or opposite sex intimacy, every gender identification, or none at all. We are all female male in make up, the substance and nurturing force of all form. This is what Yoga practice brings forth in human life. It reprograms the body mind. The matter of actual Yoga technology, actual asana pranayama need to be understood and actually practiced. These were compassionately given by sincere reality realizers in wisdom cultural circumstance to sincere people who were yet restricted. It evolved. Krishnamacharya dug these up for us these times. They cannot be bypassed with mere philosophy and meditation.
And consider this: life, spiritual life or religious life is not about residing in an inner state. of awareness to the troubled world and imagined separate objects perceived to be a problem (although such a point of view is a massive weight of “spiritual” cultural influence). No, spiritual life is a matter of engaging / embracing and outshining all patterns of the cosmos, whether apparently good and or bad, with your life’s consciousness, awareness or natural love (seeing the fact of unity of all) until all patterns are informed of the inherent unity of all things… the indivisibility or non difference of the natural state. Here there is no problem, no trouble of anything arising in the one reality in which everything is happening.
Author’s Bio:
Mark Whitwell has taught yoga for over three decades across the globe, and is the founder of the Heart of Yoga foundation, and the Heart of Yoga Peace Project. Mark Whitwell is interested in developing an authentic yoga practice for the individual, based on the teachings of T. Krishnamacharya (1888–1989) and his son TKV Desikachar (1938–2016), with whom he enjoyed a relationship for more than twenty years. Mark Whitwell is the author of four books: ‘Yoga of Heart,’ ‘The Promise,’ ‘The Hridayasutra,’ and, ‘God and Sex: now we get both.’ He also edited and contributed to his TKV Desikachar’s classic yoga text, ‘The Heart of Yoga.’ Mark Whitwell is a father of three and a grandfather. He now resides between New Zealand and Fiji and continues to write, teach, and speak.
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