This morning I listened to a tantra lecture on polarity. Mahasiddha Yoga is offering free classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. My partner and I attended three of their workshops offered last year in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We were there during the Chiang Mai Flower Festival and I remember walking outside during a class break and taking the pictures of the festival parade.
One of the polarity exercises I remember from the year-ago class involved the polarity of masculine and feminine energy. Those representing masculine energy paired up, faced each other, and held a solid stance while looking each other in the eyes and maintaining a fixed, unemotional expression. Then, those representing feminine energy came into the room and dance around, trying to attract the gaze and attention of the masculine. If any of the masculine energy holders lost focus, then their partner would quickly reach out and slap/tap their shoulder to bring them back into focus. The goal of the exercise was to feel the difference between the masculine, grounding, mass-like energy, and the feminine, dynamic, wave-like energy.
After the tantra lecture, I participated in a 4 hour online dance workshop, Dance Alive, by Mariane Karou. It was recommended by one of my housemates and three of us in the house did it together. I had a lot of resistance going into it and I wanted to leave after about 10 minutes into it. I then lied down on the floor and took a short nap. When I awoke, Mariane was talking about Resistance, and how Resistance makes us Stronger. I noticed that many of her words resonated with me and I saw an alignment with Universe Surfing. One of these involved focus – focusing your mind and your body on your goals. When you encounter resistance, then push yourself through it. When your mind gets distracted, then focus your mind on encouragement. Another was about the power of fluidity. As we moved our bodies in a fluid manner, she motivated the idea that by being fluid and flexible, we can more easily adjust and respond to changes in our environment. I imagined how a surfer focuses their attention on riding a wave and develops a fluid muscle response to changes in the waves and their position on the waves in order to continue riding a wave.
During the movement exercise, I imagined a technique for surfing through the universe. The idea is to imagine a sequence of parallel universes between the universe in which you feel yourself and the universe in which you want to be. For me, I imagined how I have a very undeveloped set of planning and organizing skills. I want to be in a universe in which I can make a task list, prioritize it, and check things off. I did my imagining while I was dancing, and then I froze my movement. As I froze my movement, I imagined myself continuing to move but in parallel universe space, not physical space. I focused my attention on the changes going on inside my body as it stayed frozen. I held that position for almost a minute as I imagined myself moving to my desired universe. When I felt myself mentally in that new universe, I began dancing again and was ready to think of something new that I wanted to change in my reality.
surfing the universe 