[Picture - lowering myself into Bound Lotus]
I wanted to share some of the sacred practices that I have found to be the most profound, ones that I keep coming back to on a regular basis and that enhance and 'up' my meditation practice and spiritual connection. In the first and second posts I'll be looking at and de-mystifying the practices of Bound Lotus & Tonglen, both of which are incredibly powerful, but which may at first seem scary or 'out of reach' to those who have not tried them before. In writing this I hope to inspire people that these practices are accessible and can offer incredible rewards, particularly in the areas of increased spiritual connection, a deepening of awareness and helping to maintain that sense of inner peace that we all crave in daily life.
The Miracle of Bound Lotus
Bound Lotus, aka Baddhapadmasana, is a yoga posture found in the Hatha, Ashtanga and Kundalini Yoga lineages. In its ultimate expression it is a form of full lotus, where the yogi folds forward and places their head on the ground, with the arms crossed behind the back and hands holding on to the big toes of the feet, forming a full body 'bind'. It is a posture of surrender to the universe, which when held, quickly raises the kundalini energy up the central spinal column, making it an ideal meditative posture. Iyengar demonstrates the posture with his characteristic flexibility in his classic book 'Light on Yoga' and states its specific purpose in raising the kundalini energy. It is also known as 'Yoga Seal Pose', or 'Yoga Mudrasana' because it forms a powerful energy feedback loop or Mudra with the whole body engaged and looking a bit like a pretzel!
Yogi Bhajan called it 'Psychic Union' pose because of its power to take the practitioner deep into the subtle realms, bringing insight and clarity, a deep experience of Shuniya - the void or silence where healing occurs, a peaceful acceptance of our situation, answers to questions, and mystical astral experiences. In Ashtanga yoga it is usually performed for a few minutes towards the end of the daily series of flowing ashtanga postures before the practitioner goes into meditation. In kundalini yoga, however, it can be a separate practice and meditation in and of itself.
The bound lotus practice recommended in the tradition of Kundalini Yoga, as taught by Yogi Bhajan, and passed on to his student, MahanKirn Kaur Khalsa, who specialises in teaching Bound Lotus, recommends building up to a period of 31 minutes a day in the posture, after having warmed up with other yoga practice. At the end of the Bound Lotus practice, the practitioner needs to rest in Savasana for 10 minutes and during this rest time further deep healing and profound experiences can occur as the energy recalibrates within the body.
MahanKirn Kaur was given this practice by Yogi Bhajan as a method to heal her leg which had become paralysed by a rare nerve disorder. She had seen more than 200 doctors, specialists and alternative healers shamans and none of them was able to help. In fact some of the best doctors recommended amputation as a solution. When she finally turned to her spiritual teacher, Yogi Bhajan, he told her that doing this extreme practice, despite the initial agony it would cause her, would heal her leg, and it did!
Although Mahan Kirn's case was extreme and she took the route of going through intense pain to get the healing she needed, the good news is that we can still get the benefit of this practice without having to go through such a painful experience. So if you'd like to try it but feel it's inaccessible because you cannot do full lotus pose, or even if you struggle to sit cross legged, don't worry as you can find a modification that means you can work towards this pose and enjoy the benefits of this practice as you progress. As MahanKirn has stated it is the journey, not the destination that counts. For instance, a variation of the posture is to sit cross-legged and bend forward with the arms behind the back, hands holding on to the elbow of the other arm. Or, another variation is to sit with one leg stretched out in front and the other leg bent at the knee with the foot placed on the hip of the outstretched leg, as in Maha Mudra posture, and then bend forward supported by pillows if needed.
I committed to a 40 day Bound Lotus practice back in 2012 and for me personally, it was agony at first, especially at the base of the spine. Although I'm not the most accomplished yogi in many postures and have issues with inward turning hips, for some reason I have been able to do full lotus posture since quite early on after starting yoga around 2006. With the Bound Lotus though I found the bending forward bit very painful and I used cushions on the ground in front of me to place my head on, so that it was not too much of a stretch for my spine at the beginning. At first I could only manage a few minutes each day, and got frustrated by the pain, but gradually I became more supple to the point of holding my toes and reaching my forehead to the floor in the full posture and I was able to hold the pose for longer each day.
The pain became a mental concept for working through and accepting emotions and also learning to just 'be' and go beyond my mind's complaints. It actually became bizarrely pleasurable because I soon realised that after I had broken mentally through the pain barrier, the depth of the peace and meditation was astounding. The pain therefore became an indicator of the potential for depth of experience. The recommended chant mantra of the Ray Man Shabad, which is provided in an accompanying CD with Mahan Kirn's Bound Lotus Manual, really helped me through as well. I started to really feel the sound, the sacred Naad, resonating within me. And towards the end of the 40 days I was managing the whole 31 minutes and finding it an incredibly peaceful and rewarding practice throughout.
It is recommended that you swap the legs around half way through your practice and I started to notice that once I swapped which leg was on top, that an incredible energy would build up in my legs. It formed an energy triangle between my base chakra and the minor energy centres in my knees. On one occasion it was pulsing so strongly that I felt as if I were literally going to 'lift off' from the ground! I began to realise how levitation might be possible with this kind of energy concentrated in a small area. I also noticed that I had the most beautiful and other-worldly experiences at the end when I was just resting in Savasana. Sometimes I would be journeying in other places and realms and other times I would just have total peace and no longer be bothered by things that had been a problem to me in my life, and also sometimes I would just drift into much needed healing sleep as well.
I stopped the practice for a while because of time issues and also wanting to build up strength through other forms of yoga, but recently I have come back to it and I'm using it in a more subtle and flexible way. I'm finding now that just being in this posture for a short period of time and then sitting up and meditating can cause profound shifts in my energy. I am a naturally sensitive person, so sometimes for me personally, I find the cliche of 'less is more' is highly appropriate. I'm learning to listen to my body, to let it guide me and respect its messages more. Some days it doesn't want to be forced into uncomfortable positions, but other days it is very willing. I am learning to listen to it more as my teacher and honour its innate wisdom.
If you are interested to learn more about Bound Lotus as a practice then I recommend visiting MahanKirn's website where you can see a free video demonstrating Bound Lotus and the various ways you can modify and assist yourself into this posture. There is also the Bound Lotus Manual I mentioned available for purchase which includes background information, useful yoga sets for warming up before bound lotus and the accompanying CD with beautiful chant music by Snatam Kaur to elevate the experience. Visit www.mahboundlotus.com for further details.
In my next blog post I shall be looking at the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Tonglen, and in future posts I plan to cover sacred chanting practices and Kriya Yoga, so stayed tuned for further information!
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