Seaph Antelmi Yoga - Article "The Yoga Mat Fire"

Fire of Practice: The Yoga Mat Fire

by Seaph Antelmi

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor" ~Henry David Thoreau

With the proper intention Yoga Mat Fire is a self induced burning that occurs when we step on to our mat and practice āsana. There are many levels to this; on the physical one the practice generates heat in the body causing it to sweat, sometimes profusely. The sweat carries toxins from the tissues and organs through the skin and out; and we detoxify our systems every time we practice.

On an energetic level, in each practice through the breath, the cells and tissues of the body are infused with prana. As the old cells die they are replaced with new prana-infused-cells which hold the energy of our intent and the vibration of our yoga practice.

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." ~Rumi

On an emotional level the fire of the practice burns away the blockages that we've stored in our body since childhood: blockages to feeling, seeing, accepting, and loving. It isn't uncommon for people to find themselves in tears on their mat. Often our suffering is repressed and the emotions associated with it are stored in our tissues. Performing the āsana can change "patterns" and move energy which can lead to an emotional, mental and spiritual detoxification.

The Yoga Mat Fire is where we burn away the old and create the new. Each day, the sun rises and then sets. So it is with each āsana practice. Beginning with Surya Namaskara we salute to Surya, the Sun, which is symbolic for the divine self. We move through the middle of the practice symbolizing our life, filled with joys and pain, and then we lie in Savāsana, the corpse pose. Each practice is symbolic for the truth of truths - our basic nature as living things: life and then the unavoidable death.

The Zen master, Suzuki spoke about the notion of being fully present in each experience using the analogy of a "good bonfire." He says that after a good bonfire there is nothing left, just ashes. He says we should be like a good bonfire; we should “burn ourselves completely” in each experience through the power of mindfulness – being fully present. When we do this, as the present becomes the past, we take our awareness with us into the next experience. We are unfettered by an attachment to the past. We leave nothing there and we are free.

This is the path of a warrior, this is the Yoga Mat Fire, and this "way of being," when we practice āsana, is “practice” for our lives off the mat. It's not easy, but it's also not impossible.

So, the Yoga Mat Fire is a description for the type of experience it is possible to have when we practice āsana. Fire is hot. It consumes and it purifies. It un-makes. When something is un-made there is room for something else to take its place, something better, more evolved, and more truthful. It takes discipline to step onto the mat and practice āsana regularly, consistently - over time, but it takes courage to step into the Yoga Mat Fire. It takes courage because in a physical sense, maybe it means you are going to practice with more energy, ask more of your self, sweat more, burn a hotter fire... It takes courage in a spiritual sense because it is the path of humility, of sincerity, and of reverence.

When we are feeling those types of feelings (humility, sincerity, and reverence), we are confronted with the truth of our basic humanness our light and our darkness, our impermanence, our longing, and our karma. So in yoga practice, as we move from āsana to āsana, some bring joy and some bring great discomfort. The challenge is to have equanimity, not to be attracted to the joy or repelled by the discomfort, but to remain grounded, pulled in neither direction. This takes discipline, but it also takes courage. Because yoga is a tall order, a knife edge... That must be why it's called a practice. No one ever gets it. There is no destination, no place to arrive. The fire burns each day, the process repeats, this goes on and on until inevitably it goes out.

You may be familiar with the symbol of Orobouros, the snake consuming its own tail. This is the same thing as Yoga Mat Fire. We are consuming ourselves with our efforts and with our intention; the fire we create in our practice both figurative and literal is the heat that is burning away physical, emotional, and spiritual toxicity. It is burning away our habitual patterns of thought and behavior that keep us limited and stuck; and burning away old beliefs that don't serve us on our path. And, while this sounds great but ask anyone who's actually stayed with it, once the process starts, it isn't easy. It is quite painful.

Letting go of “old beliefs” is one of those catch phrases; what people don't often say is how difficult that really is and when you actually do it usually because the incongruity between the old belief and perceivable reality becomes so great that it has caused intense suffering. It takes tremendous courage and strength. In that sense asana practice is a tool - it's like a knife that helps you cut through the veil and tear it away it also gives you a firm place to stand in yourself as you adjust to the new way of seeing and being.

So, recognizing habitual patterns is step one, breaking them is another matter. It isn't easy to break habitual patterns. Even by a sheer effort of will many deep rooted patterns of thought will not be broken. It is frustrating and painful especially after you've at least come to the point where you recognize them as counterproductive, even destructive. Perhaps if the Yoga Mat Fire burns hot enough for long enough they too will burn away, perhaps not...

Orobouros is a prototypical symbol of destruction and creation, of death and rebirth. The snake destroys itself while at the same time creating a new snake. This is what the Yoga Mat Fire is for. A warrior sees the practice of āsana for what it is: a chance to practice being fully present in “the truth”. And as we begin to be more open to seeing the truth, we find that it is often quite uncomfortable for us. It takes great strength and personal power to look at the truth because more often than not the truth isn't pretty, it isn't the happy ending we're used to seeing on TV, and it's damn hard to face especially when the truth we are looking at is our own.

"Comfort" is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being "comfortable." ~Swami Vivekananda

Luckily the practice of āsana cultivates strength of mind and personal power at the same time it is uncovering the truth. It is truly a magical process.

It is a good thing, I think, that yoga has become so popular because as westerners we have become experts at hiding from “the truth”. We are shielded to a great degree from death. People die hidden away in old folks homes, not in our own homes. Flat screen televisions, HD radios, laptop computers, and portable mp3 players keep us plugged in at all times to an emotional IV drip that never stops. In our homes, in our cars, in our workplace, and now wireless technology lets us carry our IV drip wherever we go.

This, all so we don't have to process our emotions and feel the pain of the truth of our existence allowing us to hide from that which we fear. Ironically these crutches only serve to isolate us more not only from ourselves but from other people. That is why āsana practice, and the "path of yoga" are so good. They offer us a place to cultivate virtues and understanding that we badly need in our selves, our families, our communities, our country and in all the world. Stepping onto your yoga mat truly is of great benefit not just to you but to everyone you touch.

According to Patanjali, the practice of āsana begins to bring about the first limb of the tree of ashtanga yoga - yama, which is basically the higher virtues, ethical and moral ways of thinking and acting. Over time these traits become stronger and more dominant. Greed, impatience, anger and self importance begin to become tempered by a deep seated largely inexpressible sort of understanding of how things fit together. It takes time and patience. It takes returning to the Yoga Mat Fire over and over again. But as the process unfolds, truth and knowledge are slowly revealed.

As humans all of us have a dark side of our consciousness: anger, jealousy, fear, impatience, greed, self importance and other base emotions reside there. The practice of āsana also brings about Niyma, the second limb of the tree of ashtanga yoga, which is self-observation. When this begins to arise we can see ourselves more clearly, our light and our darkness. This is a more truthful understanding of ourselves and from it true wisdom, compassion, and kindness can flow.

When I was in Mysore there was a house being built across the lane from my flat. I watched men with bare feet sit on the ground and chip the rocks into bricks one at a time, they used a chisel and hammer and mindfully made each brick; then they used the left over chips and sand to make the cement that holds the bricks together. Nothing was wasted. They carried the bricks in little round metal bowls on their heads up on to bamboo scaffolding (that they built themselves) and the bricks are carefully laid one by one.

This got me thinking about how we miss a lot when we're always in such a hurry. We want to get from point A to point Z and skip points B through Y. Or we're in such a hurry to get to certain pose we like to do that we rush through all the poses before it. Or we mistake the trappings of yoga for the yoga itself and we become lost in a thicket of yoga products, bad yoga magazines, studios and teachers. We miss the best part because we're in such a hurry and we think we can "buy" the answer.

This isn't to say that there's not a lot of good things about the way we do things in the west. There are. We are very inventive and creative. We are hard working and goal oriented people. We look at something and we say “What's in it for me?” and “What am I going to get?” and "How can I get it faster?" Using these axioms, we a have accomplished much.

But, when I look around at the commercialization of yoga and spirituality that is going on it makes me feel sad. I look at how we've turned something that is supposed to help a human being to reduce their self-importance into something that makes us feel even more important. A sacred thing has been turned into a "billion dollar market".

There is something to be learned here, and it relates directly to what the Yoga Mat Fire is all about. The process of yoga takes time, patience, commitment, discipline. There isn't always a shortcut and even if there was there is no where to short cut to. The yoga is in the process and the process happens in the present moment - not yesterday and not tomorrow.

Along the way there are “fruits of the practice” - feeling good – someone compliments you on how radiant you look – you have more energy – you feel good when you can do something you couldn't do before – this builds your confidence which helps you in your life.

The benefits of practicing āsana can be felt almost immediately, but in the ultimate sense āsana is a symbol for living. You're not done living until you die and in that sense there is no destination. The Yoga Mat Fire is the place where an act of creation can take place each time we step on our mats, where the bricks can be fashioned by our own sweat, blood and tears and then laid with reverence, one at a time, with every practice, every pose, and every breath. Using this approach we build a house for our spirit that is strong and beautiful.

Keep practicing!