Through a mask of mango leaves and papaya
trees, the afternoon sun casts its gentle gaze onto our veranda.
Bathing our feet in a warm pool of light, we share tea and biscuits,
enjoying conversation about the nature of things. We savor this
sweet interlude of comfort before dusk delivers an army of
mosquitoes hungry for our flesh. In the dusty streets below, cows
meander, dogs scavenge, rickshaws buzz, beggars beg, and school
children play. We hear the faint lilt of mantras and bells from a
ceremony in the distance. Periodically, the unmistakable holler of a
street peddler announcing his product echoes through the
neighborhood. The smell of burning trash blends with a swirl of
sandalwood smoke as a neighbor offers incense to the Holy Basil
plant in her yard.
There is something uniquely genuine about life in India, something
exposed and intimate, that beckons your attention like a newborn
baby, like a dying person. Around every corner, unfathomable poverty
and exquisite beauty are joined hand-in-hand. There is an intensity
here, an immediacy that pulls you — sometimes reluctantly — to feel
the pulse of life. It is often uncomfortable, too much to behold.
But discomfort proves to be a knocking at the Heart’s door. We
answer this knocking and are greeted inside by an old friend with a
few important questions:
What does it mean to embrace life fully? To dance gracefully in
tandem with what each moment brings? To embody freedom?
It is the power behind these questions that inspired our journeys to
India, China, Tibet, Thailand, and South America. Over the past
fifteen years we have traveled extensively to study Yoga, Qigong,
dance and meditation. We have had the good fortune of meeting many
masters of these arts, and have devoted our lives to continued
study, practice and teaching.
Revital: On this trip to India, I have returned to Bhubaneshwar
to deepen my training in Odissi Dance. Odissi is a Classical Indian
Dance form that has its origins in the temples of South India. The
dance is a type of lyrical Yoga practiced in the context of
spiritual transformation. The dancer’s body is viewed as the temple
of the soul. During performance the dancer is adorned with
magnificent fabrics, ornate jewels, and special pigments that
highlight the expressiveness of face and hands. An elaborate
headpiece shaped like a temple is worn to denote the sacredness of
the head’s proximity to heaven.
A performance of Indian Dance is a highly moving experience. A
skilled dancer can captivate her audience with a continuous flow of
rhythm, color, sensuality, power, and expressiveness. Evoking the
mood and motifs of mystical ancient India, the dancer leads her
audience to a place beyond time, tradition, and culture. With every
stomp of her feet, each gesture, and every mudra, the dancer and
audience dive deeper into the timeless essence of the human spirit.
The underlying aim of
Odissi Dance is to open both dancer and audience to an experience of
inner bliss. Through intense footwork that generates deep vibrations
in the dancer’s body, she maintains a delicate balance of structural
integrity, grace, and flexibility. The traditional training of
Odissi Dance demands that the dancer cultivate a grounded sense of
power and rhythm in the lower body to serve as a platform for the
intricate expressions of the torso, hands and face.
Cain: In martial arts and Qigong we work with similar principles.
I recall the words of my teachers, “Legs like an oak; upper body
like a reed.” In traditional martial arts and Qigong training, the
first aim is always to strengthen the student’s legs and stabilize
their heart-mind. With this solid foundation, the student can then
learn any number of movements, forms, and healing or martial
applications. The wisdom traditions of India and China share the
common notion that body, mind and spirit are three parts of an
inseparable whole: the Human Being. By cultivating and harmonizing
these three aspects, we can more fully experience what life has to
offer.
In Yoga, dance and Qigong, physical training of the body creates a
solid foundation of health and vigor. Different from a gym-style
workout, traditional exercises engage the body from the inside out,
largely affecting the brain, spine and internal organs. By training
in this way, the student develops a systemic vitality that prevents
injury and illness, and makes everyday living easier and more
delightful. Practicing these arts requires greater attention to
detail and a more subtle connection to the body, mind and breath.
Through daily practice, we gain insight into all facets of
ourselves. As insights bubble up, the possibility of greater freedom
looms into view. We learn to heal our own bodies and hearts, and
discover a greater capacity to help others heal.
The experience of conscious movement, and the insights it can
induce, would be incomplete without the presence of stillness. The
beauty of a melody is punctuated by the silence between notes. Over
the years, in our effort to engage the three questions posed
earlier, silence and meditative stillness have proved invaluable
companions.
Revital: Before I start to dance, I take a moment of silence and
stillness to find my poise and center. I then bow down and touch the
Earth in reverence. This is our tradition in Odissi Dance. First we
honor the solid Earth that will sustain our stomping feet and
support our dance. Only then can we move on to honor our teachers,
ourselves, our environment, and begin to dance. At the conclusion of
my dance, I return once again to the beginning, to the foundation. I
bow and touch the Earth and, in that stillness, the circle is
complete.
Cain: Before I start moving in a Qigong form, I settle into
stillness, relax my belly, and connect down into the Earth. From
this pregnant stillness, all my movements are born. At the
conclusion of the form, I become motionless once again. Having
moved, my appreciation of stillness is more lucid. Having been
still, my movements flow more naturally.
Observing the intimate relationships between movement and stillness,
silence and sound, male and female, day and night, life and death,
we understand the importance of embracing these inseparable
partnerships. We see that if any one aspect is neglected or
overemphasized, an imbalance may result. Attending to these pairs in
daily life is what Taoists call “Following the Way”. In Sanskrit,
the language of Indian Dance and Yoga, the term sadhana denotes the
subtle process of discovering perfection right under your feet.
What we have found most useful in our own lives, and what we
endeavor to share with our students, is an integral approach to
embracing life. This includes equal emphasis on meditation and
conscious movement, as well as a daily routine of eating, sleeping,
working and playing that is in harmony with the cycles of nature. We
blend these ingredients differently depending on changing
circumstances, our unique needs, and those of our students. Applying
the ancient teachings this way has produced the most powerful
results. We have witnessed life-changing transformations in our
students, and we continue to experience deeper fulfillment in our
own lives.
Speaking of harmony with
nature, the sun is almost down and the hour of the mosquito is upon
us. We have enjoyed the opportunity to reflect and share with you
through these words. We hope that amidst the changing circumstances
of your own life, you will take time to breathe deep, move, relax,
contemplate, and discover greater freedom and delight in whatever
each moment brings. Namaste from India!
Cain and Revital Carroll
are spending a year traveling, studying, teaching and writing. They
will be in Anchorage May 21-30 to present a series of workshops and
two performances of Odissi Dance. (See:
www.caincarroll.com and
www.shaktibhakti.com.) For
information on their Alaska visit, contact Jade Lady Meditation at
562-2863 or e-mail selkins@gci.net
.
