Rivers of Light: Summer Solstice

Posted Jun 22 2011

Summer Solstice is a time of expansiveness and possibility. Perched on the precipice of grace, we lean into the light, taste the majesty of the day and find ourselves surprisingly, easily, overwhelmingly committed to the auspiciousness of light. And we know, it is time to awaken.

In this, I am reminded of a poem by Rumi:

the breezes at dawn have secrets to tell –
don’t go back to sleep.

the people are crossing over the threshold where the two worlds meet –
the door is round and open –
don’t go back to sleep.

Earlier this month, I was reminded of a story one of my teachers, Catherine Ingram, told about her teacher, Poonjaji. Poonjaji had a dream that he was recounting in satsang. In the dream, the Ganges river had arisen out of its bed and formed itself into the embodiment of his teacher.

In this form, his teacher visited him; Poonjaji experienced a powerful transcendence. Then, the Ganges went back to being the Ganges.

I fancy this tale for its metaphorical power. (Which it must be, because, truly, if the Ganges river had arisen from its bed and went missing in the night, the world would have heard about it!.)

In the process of our yoga practice, we move great rivers of energy, with which we may have only a nuanced or superficial relationship. Perhaps we feel it as our heart rate increasing, body temperature shifting, or a trembling in our legs. There is a great stirring of forces, both gross and subtle. As these forces are stirred, opportunities for deep transformation are awakened. We may feel these shifts in our muscles and bones, but what forces sustain these instruments of action? We may feel a sudden, and yet oddly timeless and familiar, sense of awe and lightness in our hearts. What flushes through us in this tejas?

We stir great rivers of energy and, having been stirred, we lie still in savasana where the mighty river of light that is grace renews its course through all the layers of our body/life. Savasana, corpse pose, is a pose of deep surrender in which we practice dying to the way things have been.

Samskaras are dissolved, patterns of habitual debris are loosened.

Innate intelligence and prana flow freely.

Clarity currents of energy course unhindered.

We awaken from savasana renewed, quiet-hearted, humbled.

We know, as Rumi said, the threshold where the two worlds meet. And, we also know, deeper than our bones, his call to us from there:

Don’t go back to sleep!

Rilke, too, points to those two worlds…and finishes with God’s call to us:

Give me your hand!

Please join me for the Dharma Study Group on Tuesday, June 28th, from 7-9 pm, where we will discuss the process of this dissolving, awakening, dissolving, and awakening. Click here to read more about the Dharma Study Group at amrita.