Asian countries a “white person’ walking on the street is pulled to many different directions by people wishing “to cut him into pieces’ wanting from him many things. You will fall apart without axis. You need self-confidence and clear understanding WHAT are you going to do by your own and HOW to realize your projects. Otherwise, you will be overwhelmed by various requests, and you will start to do something different from what you have planned even ten minutes ago. Next, if you were naïve enough, you will find yourself in an unknown place, being surprised why you spent so much money for something that you did not want in the first place. And you will need to waste more money in order to come back to your original place and mental state of an independent person. A similar situation will happen with choosing a spiritual teacher: if you are focused in your central axis, you know directly what you need and you develop in chosen direction. Otherwise, you will be fished by anybody and you will need a long time to remove wrong opinions from your mind. As Socrates said, “If you have eaten something wrong you can save your life by vomiting and purifying your stomach. But if you have digested false knowledge – how can you remove it from your mind?” Axis is the base of your path. Building an axis on the energy structural level you will get the column of your character, and the right way on the spiritual level. After you have formed your axis you will get stability in calm and direction in movement. The axis can be kept by correct proportions of static and dynamic work.
No matter where I am living, when I wake up I start from finding my axis as a focus of attention, rather, than rebuilding the inner lost feeling of it, like in Tai-Chi where you do not separate physical movement from energy flow and mental concentration. If I am staying in a comfortable house with gardens, then I prefer a dynamic movement of circling exercises in order to get my axis back. If I spent the night in airplane or car, sitting in armchair, I restore the feeling of axis only by meditation. It is the principle of contrast: outer calm requires inner dynamic while outer movement requires inner calm. It is useless to do anything without axis – you will not succeed or it will take too much efforts and time. Timing is still working: you involve your personal time into evolving of “axial time’. I will give some simple techniques here, but remember that techniques are not really important and you can exchange them for better techniques of your own creation. If you understand the PRINCIPLE, you can compose many techniques for your own purposes, but if you just learning some particular techniques, they will not really help you except in the case that you repeat them till the degree that you will see how they work in principle. The principle of axis is permanent while techniques vary. Our age of high technology makes even spiritual practice too technical. So, it becomes both non-spiritual and non-practical.
Alignment
The notion of axis is central for most spiritual traditions on structural level. Symbolically, we see cross in Christianity, minaret in Islam. Technically we have axis everywhere: column as the base in Taoism, Tadasana (rock posture) as basic asana in Yoga, standing (concentration on the cross) in the whole night in Christian prayer. In transforming systems, systems that transform the very structure of a human being up to physical level, the vertical axis serves as a direction for rising the Kundalini in Tantra or descending of super-intellect in Integral Yoga. Axis as such is obvious in Sufi circling dance. All these are methods to improve the vertical axis. I described many techniques for building the axis in my books: “Hatha Yoga Practice: Disciple against Wall’ and “Taoist Female Practice: Period of Preparation’. Everything depends on our axis, no matter what tradition you follow, or what practice you perform. Vice versa, no matter what you do and what tradition you belong to, and it is important how good is your axis developed. Namely, axis coordinates your consciousness and connect microcosm with macrocosm. There is no working situation without axis; therefore, mastering of axis is the base, the process, and the achievement in any spiritual practice.
Any tradition includes various practices in standing position as I mentioned above. Taoism is based on “column’ for all dynamic styles (Tai Chi, Ba Gua, Syn Yi) which is precious as a meditative practice by itself. Chinese like the story about a disciple who avoided martial arts preferring to stand in a “column’ for hours, and all others laughed at him. He stood one year, ten years… The master became old and decided to choose another head for the school. The main condition for the candidates was to be good “rooted’ since the head of a monastery must be stable like a rock. So, the master checked all his disciples to know how the improvement of their central axis was. He pushed everyone, and all fell down except the disciple who was standing in a “column’ for years. As result, he became the head of the monastery. You can find many versions of the story with the same essence: the basic principle is the foundation for all practices. Mainly, it is enough as such, if you do it not just externally but following detailed inner principles. When you deal with the vertical axis, the standing position is the most important.
In the sitting position any technique of meditation requires straight spine while the position of your legs can be different. However, in classic meditative asanas, it helps to close your body at the bottom, stopping to lose the energy and cutting downward flowing, therefore, the energy is reoriented upward. These asanas construct a triangle as base of a “pyramid’, where the axis is fixed into the most stable structure. Then you can keep axis automatically. The Lotus posture is an ideal pose for meditation both in Indian and Chinese systems. Energy work needs focus attention to the spine since your axis must be active. Anyway, you can sit on your knees as well – religiously, it is used mostly in prayer and other rituals. Buddhist prostrations start from vertical axis while it is standing in Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism) and sitting in Theravada (original Buddhism). In both cases you build axis for doing the prostrations and again come back to the central axis. We will remind this practice while discussing the personal rhythm of the spiritual practice where you add movements like the dynamic Taoist meditation.
In the laying position, there is horizontal axis as well. However, it is Yin state, while the spiritual practice requires namely vertical axis. Women can use laying positions since they have horizontal energy structure. Men can use the laying positions in order to improve foundation. All people can choose the laying position for practice when they are tired. Hatha Yoga practice is finishing by Shavasana which is relaxation in the lying position on your back with arms and legs aside of your straight spine as the central axis. Yoga Nidra (conscious sleep) is performed in Shavasana, as a pose for deep meditation, where the whole body is mastered by focus attention, step by step, symmetrically around the axis. The Taoist dynamic meditation is performed in the same posture with some additional movement of arms and legs. Bend arms and legs simultaneously connecting palms and feet but keeping them on the surface; then turn to a side closing elbows and knees; come back to previous position; turn to other side with the same movement; come back to “8” -pose again; stretch you arms and legs; and finally you are in the starting position of Shavasana. This can be better understood in actual practice with the teacher. When you are ready to stand up, first you have to turn to a side as before. The Taoist sleeping meditation needs also straight spine and controlled limbs.
Mastering Axis
In any position, the axis is felt clearer and kept stronger if you add twisting of your whole body around the axis. Standing in the column, you can turn left-right keeping arms down (the palms will create a circle around your hips); arms in the middle horizontally (the palms will create a circle around your chest); finally above head (the palms will create a circle around your high energy channel). Sitting with crossed legs, you can make stronger twist to perform more “closing’ asanas: start from Siddhasana, coming to Ardha-Padmasana and finishing in Padmasana (lotus). It can be comfortable to put your palm on opposite knees at twisting while other palm is going behind your back to opposite hip. Laying on your back you can do a simple asana when you put one foot on opposite knee and put bent knee on the floor to opposite side while turning your head back. The most important thing is to improve straight line from top to foot. All symmetrical asanas must be done on both sides.
