The Spiral Dynamic
The human body is not an artefact, it is the most spectacular fruit of millions of years of evolution. The inherent integrity of the body has, is and always will function and express itself. Yet it will only do so nourishingly if our habits and intentions do not undermine it. This renders yoga practice a process of inviting and allowing, rather than demanding or imposing.
This does not require every joint and muscle to be brought to maximum potential efficiency. It is simply a matter of establishing a habituated integrity of action. Once this functional integrity has been embodied organically as a somatic imperative the innate impulse to wholeness and integration operating in every living cell of the body will harness it to produce structural integrity in its own time of our practice.
In practice integrating the body requires muscular contraction to be organised so that it creates a simultaneous stability (sthiram) and ease (sukham). This is established by the mechanism of opposition: wherein different actions and body parts stabilise each other through balanced resistance. This generates a spiral dynamic that is the natural expression of the bandhas.
Human musculature functions spiralically. Complementary muscle pairs never act in isolation. Two interacting sheaths of muscles spiral from toe to head and resist, complement and balance each other. In this mechanism the spiralic dynamic of duality, and the complementarity of opposition are simultaneously expressed in our every action.
In the body, movements that take the shortest path, and use the least effort, describe a spiral arc and not a straight line. So while the geometrical principles of Euclid may serve the architect they do not describe the functioning of human musculature. A functioning that expresses and requires a spiral dynamic. That is the universal expression of the curved nature of spacetime discovered by Einstein. A curvature that is caused by gravity. This spiral dyanmic is not unique to human beings, but to all life. Not exculsive to organic life but to all phenomena.
The spiral is the dynamic of formation, growth, structure, motion and expression: it is the dynamic of life itself. The spiral dynamic of the double helix is found everywhere. It governs and integrates not only the macrocosmic formation of galaxies, and the microcosmic formation of the genetic code, but also the growth of organisms and motions of the planets. It is at the heart of structural integrity (a galaxy, the body) and functional integrity (spinning planteary orbits, the integrity of yoga postures). The human body and its limbs form spiralically in the womb. The spiral is also a structural keynote of the human body, to be found in the shape of the heart, in the inner ear, as well as every strand of dna.
