Space in the Dynamic Yoga Method
SPACE: THE ELEMENT OF CONTAINMENT
Space is the primary element within which the four secondary elements emerge and operate. It is the context within which the other elements interact: the matrix within which they dance. Space qualities are immediacy, presence, emptiness, directness, freedom and being. Its fundamental expression is consciousness or awareness, and it is embodied in the technique of drushti: spontaneous, effortless attention. The arena of space is everywhere, its source is consciousness, its medium awareness, and its key: presence. It leads to a direct and deep awareness of that which is actually happening, free from imagination, assumption, expectation and projection.
The superficial application of space is concentration. The subtle application of space is surrender of intention. Establishing space requires the utilisation of restraint, the sign of its presence is the opposite, freedom. Without drushti the other techniques are hindered as their continuity requires the continuous light of our awareness. This can not be imposed, but functions as a direct expression of our desire (tapas). This generates an attentiveness that becomes both broad and deep, eventually encompassing the whole of our body and its activities, and the whole of our being and its context, in the dynamic awareness esoterically known as samadhi.
Acessing the meditative mind is the purpose of yoga practice. Within the meditative mind the flow of perceptions, including thought, becomes clarified within the rhyhtm of awareness which it neither obscures nor hinders. Any duality between the two is dissolved. The meditative mind is one of stillness (sthiram) and delight (sukham). Untroubled by anything it is directly present to what is actually happening (actions and perceptions). The depths of this presence elucidates what actually is (the rythmic flow of awareness itself).
This can not be brought about by any intention. It is the result only of a deep looking (drushti) becoming a clear seeing. This does not require the utilisation of any technique, as any intention distorts the light of awareness. It depends only on being able to relax back into the intrinsic functioning of awareness itself, which is to see through the eyes, to hear through the ears, to smell through the nose, to taste through the tongue, to feel through the body, to perceive, conceive and intuit through the various aspects of mind, without distortion. These functions are built-in to the human organism. They need only to be released from our meddling. Meditation then is the process of letting go of our intentions into the ground of our being: an effortless shift from doing to being.
