You are spanda. Everything is…
It’s only the past couple of years, this glorious Sanskrit word ‘spanda’ has come more into my awareness. All teachers have teachers. Such is the great wheel of gnosis that gets spun and woven. It was from one of my yoga teachers Sianna Sherman, I heard it first. Or perhaps experienced it, in a mythic yoga class, with the theme of Tara, the goddess of heart.
Spanda comes from the Spanda lineage. That stems from the tantric philosophies of 9th and 10th century Kashmiri Shaivism. Being very drawn to the tantric histories, the teachings were much more about yoga for the householder, men and women. The physical aspects came much later in Hatha yoga. Tantra is non-dualistic, meaning all paths within it remind us of unity. That all is one. That nothing is good or bad, it just is. The practises of mantra (voice), mudra (gestures of the hands), myths and legends and storytelling to help us understand sometimes very confusing, abstract concepts.
A literal translation of such a vibration, this spanda that pulses through the entire universe, is therefore difficult! As Sanskrit and Tantric scholar Christopher Wallis writes in his book ‘Tantra Illuminated’ which I’m still digesting in small pieces after buying it about 5 years ago at a series of London workshops with him….he writes, ‘ Since the universe is nothing but spanda, the dynamic pulsation of interlaced movements of expansion and contraction, the beat of the drum sets the tone for all that follows.’ Referring to Lord Shiva and his sacred dance of bliss. In this depiction Lord Shiva (the masculine principle of pure consciousness) has four arms and in his upper right hand, holds a small drum.
Spanda - asking us to dance to the beat of our own drum. To awaken to this pulse. Primordial. The beating and thrum that vibrates through everything. In a practical sense, this could be dancing to strong drum music, it might actually be drumming to create that percussion through all your cells. We can invoke it in the tiniest of movements. In swallowing. The lubrication that ripples through our throat passageways, through rivers and streams of our blood, through our shared laughter. It is everywhere. Omnipresent. Way, way out permeating the entire cosmos. when we look up at Sirius in the night sky, at the scintillating shimmers of Orion’s Belt. Of stunning crescent moons. In the hoot of a night owl, reminding us the darkness is a powerful place.
In the sounds of running water - a bubbling spring or even the hot shower you take after a long day. In the capacity of your breath to loosen old debris, from one’s deepest innards. To disentangle and dismantle with this yoga of vibration. To move the body in ways it feels loved and cared for. To encourage the spanda. To be spanda….
One of our Sacred Hoopers shared this gorgeous image below yesterday after our weekly Sunday morning class focussed on spanda. As an expression of spanda. The glow. The colours. The weave, the sacred geometry…what does the image invoke in you?
In micro-movements we can experience this. The deliciousness of our own tissues and form. To embody our muscles. The feeling of the soft palette, where first intentional movement was made - when we reached our tiny open mouths to suckle. Hands and feets pulsating with the joy of a milk haze. Ahhh sweet nourishment. Light infusions in to all our stellar cells. Connection. Warmth.
We are the stars. We are the oceans. We are the universe in motion.
We are spanda
‘According to the core Tantric philosophy of Spanda, the ‘Vibration’ of Divine Consciousness manifests as the whole universe, including the physical and subtle bodies of every human being. Tantra teaches us that there is a unifying continuity between our physical bodies, the activities of our mind and emotions, and all forms of interior awareness. All of these are manifestations of the one source; thus, we are all microcosmic pulsations of the whole, expressions in bodily form, within the illusory dimension of time and space, of Universal Consciousness’ Christopher Tompkins, From Spanda: The Yoga of Vibration
Wishing you a marvellous February community!