February 10, 2010 - Day 1 (7:00 - 10:00 PM)
I finally took the plunge and decided to attend a formal self-help course. (Not that I need any of that :-))... Due to some strange confluence of stars, I had the time and ability to "just do it" without thinking too much about expectations..
Prior to the class, I read up on a technical paper describing the changes in brain contours before and after Sambhavi Mudhra. The 16 electrodes connected to the head definitely seemed to show significant pattern change. However, I am not knowledgeable enough to understand how that translates to behavioral changes and how one would maintain the "enriched" state of mind through the normal day of routines..
The class started with an eloquent lady talking about some profound topics in a pretty balanced and witty manner. The audience seemed to be generally analytical in nature. Most questions and thoughts were obvious - One does not need a course to talk about these...
Let me note one particular analogy that stuck in my head (since I did not agree with it) - The presenter insisted how children dont feel any depression and always stay at the excited/blissful state of mind. She was comparing it to adults who seem be stressed at all the things and forget to get excited at all the simple things in life...
While all that sounds good, I will have to vehemently state that kids get just as depressed and throw uncontrolled tantrums when what they desire is not met. Although their depressions may be short-lived, they definitely go through highly amplified peaks and throughs of emotion during every single living day. In contrast, most adults have learnt to subdue/dampen their peaks and throughs. After all, adults have to put up with emotions of other people in addition to their own..
Another topic that left a lot open was "desire" - The video with Sadhguru's presentation included over 20 minutes of trying to pry open the guts of "desire" and "how do we conquer desire". I came out as ambivalent as I entered the class. The way Sadhguru was disputing/rejecting different comments from the audience, I was waiting to see what his real "answers" were. Well, I was waiting till the very end (the next few days may come back to address this).. Honestly, I do not want to know any answer to this question, since I have my own philosophy that guides me through this - I believe we swallow what we chew. And we decide how much to put in our mouths and how much to spit out and when. If each one of us does not know how big our mouths are, or, what substances (topics) our mouth is allergic to, or, what the consequences are once we swallow the distilled portion, or, what happens if we do not spit out the residue in time etc, we get to face the consequences and learn about it - It is a simple process of learning... Each individual's risk/greed propensity is different and luck/attitude may play a role too... there are no wins and losses... it is just an experience..
I definitely found the last hour of the 3-hour session very informative. Here are the key things I took out:
1. There are 104 chakras (102 inside the body and 2 outside) - I need to research this more to understand what they are and how they translate to human anatomy. I am definitely curious to know about the two chakras "outside" the anatomy :-)
2. One can look at the entire human being at multiple levels - Body, Mind and Life energy (commonly classified as Physical layers) and "transcendental" and "ananda" levels (Dont know what these were called? Meta-physical, virtual, ??). Obviously, I will hear and learn a lot more in the coming days...
3. Three asanas (butterfly, Baby in Arms and one other that strengthens Moola-dhara Chakra). I think I can align with these concepts since they seem pretty logical to me.. Afterall, they are excercises of body+mind - who can disagree, eh!!!
On to Day 2....
I had my first class today and decided to re-visit your blog for the day. I hope you don't mind if I leave comments on my experience.
ReplyDeleteMy reactions to some parts of the lecture are similar, I didn't like some of the analogies the speaker used or I didn't completely agree with her.
The guru or whatever you call that bearded man, was alright. I didn't like how he kept disapproving everyone's comments on the topic "desire." I became little antsy at one point waiting for his answer but he left it open and went into the next topic. I guess his point is if one practices everyday life in a certain way, some of these issues like "desire" can be taken care. That is the connection or conclusion I made in my head.
I liked the last part of the course today. Doing the asanas for few minutes helped me warm up (the room was little chilly) and I was able to maintain a straight back. I like how simple asanas can make a difference.