SUNDI
The Place in the Middle
The Gateway to the Heart
The Sanskrit
work sundi refers to the space between two actions. Some familiar sundis are the space between breaths, the space between preparing food and
eating it and even the pause just before
sneezing. Dawn and dusk are considered significant sundis in the daily cycle. And then there’s Sunday, the sundi between
the weeks. A profound sundi, recognized by any woman who has given birth
consciously, is “transition”, a potent quiet place between labor and birth,
that is so powerful and filled with Shakti, that it feels like the eye of a
storm of Grace.
Yoga teaches
that in the sundi there exists the potential for a great opening to Grace. In the sundi, blessings rain down. It all depends on learning to recognize the sundi
and then being present in that place in the middle.
In Yoga
Asana, Pranayama and Meditation there are many sundis. The centering and chanting at the beginning of
class is a sundi between the busy world of 10,000 things, and the focused time
of practice. There is another sundi just
after practicing when you consciously intend to take the fruits of the practice
off the mat and into the world of “the 10,000 things”. Two of the classic and most obvious asana sundis are
Tadasana and Savasana. Tadasana is a pose which honors the place between poses.
Savasana can be a way to practice the Sundi between life and death (well OK - maybe just
between yoga class and the rest of your day :). Pranayama offers a wonderful awareness of sundi - the pause between breaths. And meditation sometimes takes one into a very deep sundi - a vibrating silence and space between thoughts
Gurdjieff
spoke of sundis (although he didn’t use that word) when he said that at two
points in an octave you either go forward or backward; there is a shift in
direction. You can’t stay the same. Because the flow is blocked and requires more
energy to bridge the gap, you need a push or you will go backwards.
In other
words, when we hit a gap, a sundi, if we don’t have enough energy, we don’t
jump the gap and move forward. We have
to make a sort of leap and this is always precipitated by some sort of shock
although we may not always label it that way and it may be only a mild shock if
it is only a mild sundi. Think, for
example, of the mild shock it takes to leap the gap between dog pose and
kicking up into handstand.
Yoga teaches
us exactly what to do in that gap. We
must become spacious inwardly, open to grace.
Yoga trains us to learn, gradually but inevitably, to draw inward and
expand when we find ourseves in a sundi.
This is in fact the practice of pratyhara. We draw our senses inward and expand our
inner body and heart from the inside out.
One of my favorite images for understanding how to practice pratyhara in
the sundi is the tortoise. I like to
imagine that I can withdraw all my senses like the tortoise withdraws her 4
legs, tail and head, into a spacious light filled room in my heart. And from there I can open to grace and leap
the gap.
One other
thing that often helps us leap the gap is purposeful or intentional use of
sound. Imagine hovering at the door of a
plane, waiting to sky-dive, and the shout of “GO!” is what makes you leap. Or, in a quieter way, imagine someone saying
“yes, yes, keep going” as a child attempts a difficult new skill. In Yoga, chanting “OM” or saying “Namaste” at
the end of class has been what has taken many people across the gap between
“just a work-out” and “the practice of Yoga”.
Whether on
the mat or off the mat, leaping the gap is how we evolve and transform. On the mat, we learn to recognize the quality
of a sundi, pause to draw into our heart and then, moving from the
expansiveness we find there, we learn to leap.
The practice on the mat helps in another way also. It builds in us,
gradually and over time, a reserve of energy.
When you reach a point where you must either go forward or backward,
where you can’t stay the same, you will have the reserve of energy and a practice
of courage to bridge the gap, to leap across.
Awareness, cultivated
by practice, generates a current or charge of Prana which can help to bridge
the gap. Think of a synapse and the spark that leaps across the gap. Practice is
the key: we do not rise to a challenge (or a leap) but instead are enabled to
leap by the ground that is cultivated by our practice. Steady practice over a
long period of time, with devotion, will assure that when the sundis arise, you
will be able to see the opportunity and leap the gap.
Ah, just perfect. I have been contemplating thresholds - how to pause in reverence at this place in the middle, the way one would pause at the temple to remove your shoes before entering the sacred space within. Your writing on sundi is a beautiful illumination - aha! "that's what that threshold is - a sundi". thank you, thank you. <3
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