“Rhythm”

Life is filled with movement, rhythm, flow. Use the following reflections to deepen your understanding of this significant fact.

AUDIO
Swami Radha reads Cosmic Dance from her book of poems, When You First Called Me Radha. Listen to the audio.

REFLECTIONS

1. 1. Practise the Sun Salutation, and reflect on the following questions (Inner life of Asanas, pg 39).
      • Reflect on the significance of bowing before the sun, of greeting the day with gratitude. Do the sun salutation with devotion, feeling the movements as a prayer.
      • Bring to mind a current issue in your life. Then hold it in your mind as you go through the cycle of the sun salutation. Observe your responses – physically, mentally, emotionally – with each movement.
   2. “Aristotle in his Poetica states that language, rhythm and sound together make up poetry.” (Mantras, Words of Power, pg 21). Read or listen to the poem ‘Cosmic Dance‘ in When You First Called Me Radha (pg 58). Then sit quietly. Bring to mind the rhythms, the cycles that you have lived in this lifetime. What is it that has stayed constant through the rhythms of your life?
   3. Dance is Yoga … Yoga is Dance. Enter into the Divine Mother Prayer through dance or the mudras. Repeat the movements several times. How do you create flow as you move from one mudra or dance movement to another? Observe what happens with your body and mind as you create a rhythm with this prayer.
   4. “Spiritual practice allows us access to our own minds. Observation and reflection become essential. There are always ups and downs in us, in others, in life because life is like a wave – it is not straight and logical.” (Living the Practice, pg 75). Ask yourself: Where was Divine Mother in the rhythm of my day?
   5. “In the Muladhara of yours, I worship Him who has nine natures, dancing the great Tandava, having nine sentiments, together with (His Shakti) Samaya, the quintessence of Lasya. It is from these two, each having its own presiding form, looking in compassion on the disposition of the origination (of the world) that this world has come into existence, having you as father and mother.” Reflect on the mantra of the 1st Cakra through dance, movement, chanting, drawing or any other spiritual practice. What is the personal message for you?
   6. Go on a symbolic walk. What rhythms do you observe in yourself and the world around you?
   7. “By regulating your breath you tune into the great rhythm of life.” (Yoga of Healing, pg 98-99). Sitting or laying down, bring your breath to a 4-4 count, becoming aware of the effect of balancing the inhalation and exhalation. Can you relax into this natural rhythm and allow the breath to breathe itself? What does it mean to tune into “the great rhythm of life”?