The
centre of the Universal Yoga Mandala Poster is designed to be used as a reference chart for integrating awareness of the 5 Elements
into yoga practice, meditation, and daily life. It can also be used
as a self-diagnostic tool to correct your own long term and short
term imbalances.
The best way to learn about the 5 Elements and yoga is to have a Universal Yoga Mandala in your house and to return to it often to contemplate the information encoded within it. The materials presented here are a collection of writings that may shed further light on your studies.
Winged
in Fire and Water, Resting on Heaven and Earth,
Cloaked in Space, I sing the Songlines Home
Please Note: Words
in yellow are from the text of the Universal Yoga
Mandala Poster
Distilled from a discussion between AzurFreeYogi and Firebird - the CoCreators of the UniversalYogamandala
The five elements are one of the ultimate models of existence, they are on of the most universal insights of the worlds ancient philosophies. In Sanskrit they are known as the pancha-maha-buthas,
the five great states of existence. In Greece the Pythagorean school linked the elements with the five Platonic solids
and made them a centrepiece of their geometric model of the universe.
The Chinese based their system of science and medicine on the cycles of
energy through the five elements.
Often if a tradition presents itself
as having four elements, it is because the fifth element is being kept secret. The fifth element is
the unifying vertical axis to the 'four directions'. All phenomena are
contained within space, so space is the unifying factor. In Greece the
dodecahedron was a secret shared only with initiates.
Five
is the smallest number that has the instability and chaos that can
allow living processes to thrive. Five embodies the self-referencing
relationship of the 'Golden Mean'. This is why the DNA, the patterns that encodes all life on earth is structured upon the five sided symmetry of the dodecahedron.
Everything can be embraced within the scheme of the five elements. It connects things. For instance it connects sound to spaciousness.
It connects a behavior of non-harm and commitment to the qualities of
consolidation,solidity and stability. The UniversalYogaMandala makes visible the internal relationships between the elements on all planes of existence.
The five Elements have a unifying quality.
First you get oneness then duality, then you get the five, then as the
Chinese say - the 10,000 things.
The five elements make the intangible tangible.
It's the 'viscosity of omnipotence'. Omnipotence is very slippery, whereas the five elements gives viscosity to omnipotence.
The
Universal Yoga Mandala's imagery and information helps you to reconnect with
the elemental realms. It works with the elemental energies
through sacred geometry to harmonise and align all levels of being. You
will find that if you go to an unspoiled natural place, and use Yoga or other practices, you can open
yourself to the Earth, the Water, the Fire, the Wind, and the Spirit -
and they will help you to bring through a new level of awareness and a
new clarity of purpose. You may even discover that the whole landscape
is an artwork that has been sculpted by Elemental hands over the millennia,
just as they have fashioned the exquisite biological miracle of your
body and its sensory organs.
"Matter
is a swarming of Elementary consciousness ready to enter into the
higher combinations of the organic world" Tielhard de Chardin
"The
analysis of the fundamental unity of all phenomena into 5 interdependent
Elements or qualities is a time honored alchemical practice. Here
they are presented as the 5 petals of the flower of the Mandala, and
metaphorically named: Space, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. All phenomena
can be classified into these 5 categories.
Yoga philosophy calls them the 'Pan-cha-maha-bhutas' which means the
five great states of material existence. The innermost circle of the
Mandala names the element, its associated sense and body or 'sheath'.
The senses are hearing, touching, seeing, tasting & smelling.
The 5 sheaths are the causal, intellectual, psychological, physiological
& anatomical bodies. The 5 pointed star, or pentacle, incorporates
the 'Golden Mean' proportions and is intimately connected to the structure
of the DNA, the blueprint of life on Earth. "
The
five types of poses (Asanas)
will develop the qualities of their associated element.
Likewise, the five disciplines of Yama or Niyama will help one with
the types of asana of the element.
The affirmations can also be used to work on developing a particular
element's qualities.
For instance, practicing backbends (Fire) will energise you and develop
qualities such as creativity and courage,
and the practice of openness (asteya) or austerity (tapas)
will help to develop your flexibility and strength in these poses.
The affirmation "enthusiastically love burns within me, combusting
all pride and self-condemnation"
will also develop your psychological body (manomayakosha)."
All text in Yellow on this page is straight from the UniversalYogaMandala poster.
This section is distilled from a discussion between AzurFreeYogi and Firebird
who are the co-creators of the UniversalYogaMandala poster.
It's
time more than ever before to draw upon the best we have in ourselves,
to bring peace and a sense of purpose into our lives and into society. Peace begins within - therefore the most essential path to peace is the cultivation of personal harmony.
Yoga
is not just the systems of physical exercise that it is often
identified with in the western world. Yoga is a name for any path that
leads beyond the illusion of separation from the whole - any discipline
that removes the blockages to blissful awareness of reality as it is.
There are many different types of yoga. For instance there is the yoga
of devotion, Bhakti yoga, and the yoga of understanding, Jnana yoga.
The
yoga that involves working toward the perfection of the physical body
is properly known as Hatha yoga. Hatha yoga means union of the
dualistic forces - ha means Sun and tha means Moon and yoga means union.
Yoga practice means exploring and mastering the forces within the body and mind.
In this sense many martial arts, and some traditions of dance are also yoga systems.
All exercise explores the nature of spacetime
as it involves the movement of the body's geometry in relation to itself,
its environment,
and the gravitational field of the Earth - over a period
of time.
Physical Yoga can align the body with the archetypal patterns
on which it is modeled.
If the intent is to become peace filled - then
dance, Tai chi and other 'martial' arts
can likewise align
one's habits of movement
to the harmonious possibilities of the structure
of the human form.
Yoga is about creating peace and expanding consciousness.
Yoga is the expansion of happiness.
Yoga in one sense is any process that develops the ability for you to be at home, at peace,
on the physical plane in the physical body.
There is a mind and body living together in a human being - it's very ordinary...
and yet it's really a most extraordinary paradox,
and one that we can be incredibly intimate with.
So yoga is just looking at how common it is to have a mind living in a body,
and the difficulties of that relationship which are universal challenges.
One of the keys to working intimately with the duality of mind and body is with our own breath.
The body is innately intelligent, peaceful and harmonious.
By its own nature it has determined not to be a puddle of amino acids on the ground.
It is constructive and animated, self-regulating, and so loving.
The body is a garden and it longs for the mind to enter it and to wander its pathways -
yet most people spend a lot of time running around avoiding it.
As people awaken, their consciousness of the body
becomes more intense along with everything else.
In holistic Yoga - the mind gets to meet the body,
and the body experiences the mind.
The healthy human being has to be at home in their body
as well at at home in their circumstances.
Becoming aware of the tension embodied as a result of dualistic forces -
allowing them to be coexisting in non struggle or non-harming -
is a state called in Sanskrit 'Ahimsa'.
Left and right, up and down, life and death, hot and cold -
all polarities create boundaries, mental membranes, edges, interfaces.
Through Ahimsa the aspirant may support or develop the foundations -
the development of a third force, the mediative force.
This is most tangible in the body as an internal movement of Ascension,
a lengthening of the spine which brings structural harmony,
spaciousness in the joints, and much peace to the nervous system.
The harmony of the dualistic forces in the structural body
and the cultivation of the mediative force
is the origin of movement through the Sushumna nadi of Kundalini.
Conscious exercise involves the physical, emotional, mental, and
spiritual bodies. It aligns and activates of all the various aspects of
our beings, the bodies or 'sheaths', the energy centres. It connects
the polarities and completes the circuit from macrocosm to microcosm,
from individual to universal. Just as there is the external alignment
of the celestial geometries, so too the aspects of our internal
realities are approaching an alignment and integration that has never
before been possible.
At this time there is a call to yoga, a call for unification,
a call from the earth inviting consciousness to enter it again, not just exploit it.
This is also a call from the body to have the consciousness enter it,
and a call from the Galaxy - a call to go beyond planetary consciousness
as human beings develop to that level.
As the native American keepers of the BirdTribes tradition say,
its a 'basic call to consciousness'.
The more
than two millennia old 'Yoga Sutras of Patanjali',
one of the most venerable and influential texts on Yoga, loosely translated,
begins...
1. atha yoga nusasan ~
Now Yoga Transmission.
2. yoga citta vritti nirodaha ~
Yoga happens with the stilling of the Flames of the Heart.
3. tada drasthuh svarupe vasthanam ~
Then the Solar Angel abides within the Light of its own Being in all
circumstances.
4. vritti sarupyam itaratra ~
Otherwise, there is identification with every movement as though it
were the Centre, the True Self.
5. vrttayah pancatayyah klista klistah ~
The apparent play of phenomena is Fivefold, both pleasant and unpleasant.
"The
healthy human being is composed of all 5 elements in harmonious balance.
The correct balance of elemental qualities is naturally developed through
the proper practiceof yoga.
Yoga is far more than the system of physical training that it is normally
identified with. "
" Physical
poses or 'Asana' are the third of the eight limbs. .
The 5 types of Asana that emphasize elemental qualities are:
SPACE- Inversions or sitting still - invokes openness and lightness. .
AIR - Balancing poses - draw forth dexterity and equilibrium .
FIRE - Back bends - evoke power, warmth, & transformation .
WATER - Forward bends & twists - are cooling, calming, yielding ,
soothing, and nurture introspection and fluency.
EARTH - Standing poses - support tolerance, strength & stability.
Asana means a seat in which the Witnessing Consciousness observes
sensations. As insight arises and ignorance passes, the dimension
of tension is seen clearly, and obsolete cellular memory and habitual
muscular holding patterns are released.
The forth limb of yoga is called Pranayama. It is vitality cultivation
through breath modulation exercises.
The deeper and more aware the breathing is, the stronger the life
presence.
Specific breathing techniques work to effect specific patterns within
the subtle balance of the life force.
The names of the Pranayamas are in the fifth circle, beyond the
Asanas. "
Most of the attributions in the tables here are traditional. Our main
addition is to assign the Yamas (tendencies to constrain) and Niyamas
(tendencies to develop) to particular elements, and to provide an
affirmation for each of the elements. There are many different systems
possible and different ones have been used in different cultures and
times. We hope you will find this one useful to contemplate. Frequent
consultation of the Mandala will facilitate the deepening of your
awareness.
Element
Space
Air
Fire
Water
Earth
Sensory
Field
Hearing
Feeling
Seeing
Tasting
Smelling
Type of Pose (Asana)
Inversions
or Sitting Poses
Balancing
Poses
Back
Bends
Forward
Bends
Standing
Poses
'Body'
or 'Sheath'
Causal
(Anandamaya-kosha)
Intellectual
(Vijnanamaya-kosha)
Psychological
(Manomaya-kosha)
Physiological
(Pranamaya-kosha)
Anatomical
(Anamaya-kosha)
Disciplines
(Yama)
Non-grasping
or Simplicity
(Aparigraha)
Focus
or Continence
(Brahmacharya)
Non-stealing
or Openness
(Asteya)
Non-deceiving
or Truthfulness
(Satya)
Kindness
or
Compassion
(Ahimsa)
Practices
(Niyama)
Selflessness
or Spirituality
(Ishvaraparidhana)
Self-study
or Understanding
(Swadhyaya)
Enthusiasm
or Austerity
(Tapas)
Equanimity
or Contentment
(Santosha)
Purity
or Clarity
(Shaucha),
Breath (Pranayama)
Viloma
or KevalaKumbhaka
NadiShodana
or AnataraKumbhaka
SuryaBhedana
or Bastrika
Sitkali
or Chandrabhedana
Ujayi
or
BhayaKumbhaka
" The
'Eight Limbs
of Hatha Yoga' were designed by the ancient sages to be
practiced in conjunction with each other. The first four limbs
are arranged as concentric rings around the centre of this
Mandala. The first two limbs of Yoga are Yama & Niyama.
They are codes of living soulfully. The 5 Yamas restrain
negative tendencies. They are non-harming, non- deceiving,
non-stealing, non-distraction and non-complexity. The 5 Niyamas
cultivate benevolent character traits. They are commitment,
contentment, enthusiasm, self-study, & spirituality. Here we
have
included for each Yama & Niyama an affirmation that will assist
in developing them. Living by these codes cultivates the positive
human
qualities shown in the outer ring of the Mandala. These qualities
are
programmed into the biocircuitry of the body through physical posturing. "
Affirmation
for the Yama
Space
Omniscience
supplies my hidden needs and fills my life completely.
I ecstatically accept all possible experience.
Air
I
express my energy in ways that bring me closer to my heart.
As I cease to hold captive the object of my Love, I set myself free.
Fire
In
joyful abundance I open my soul to the Sun, loosen every knot
release every cord and leave everyone free.
Water
Knowing
and flowing with truth, the truth shall set me free.
When I am true to myself I am the equal of all.
Earth
I
will be gentle, filled with love
knowing that in asking for life I ask for all.
Affirmation
for the Niyama
Space
I
am living, breathing, moving in Omniscient Life,
relaxing into what is always and already accomplished.
Air
Heaven
is within me so I live and breath Gratitude. I breath Oneness
and move keenly alive, guided by inner knowledge.
Fire
Enthusiastically
love burns within me,
combusting all pride and self-condemnation.
Water
I
am freeing myself from security, sensation and power addictions
that make me forcefully control situations in my life.
Earth
In
clarity and commitment I cherish my body
as it is the temple of my Soul.
"When
they became centres, and therefore persons, the elements could at last
begin to react, directly as such, to the personalising action of the
centre of centres. When consciousness broke through the critical
surface of hominisation, it really passed from divergence to
convergence and changed, so to speak, both hemisphere and pole. Below
that critical ' equator ' lay the relapse into multiplicity ; above it,
the plunge into growing and irreversible unification. Once formed, a
reflective centre can no longer change except by involution upon
itself. ...It escapes from entropy by turning back to Omega : the hominisation of death itself." Teilhard de Chardin
Three
billion years ago photosynthetic cells appeared on Earth and spread
into virtually every environment by tapping electrons in a ubiquitous
substance: water. They evolved an ability to split water (H2O) into
electrons (e-), protons (H+) and molecular oxygen (O2). Thus, photosynthetic
cells could exploit water and thrive in new environments. Electrons
and protons are energetically useful; O2 is but a by-product.
To
use water as an electron source is no simple feat, since water gives
up electrons grudgingly. The energy of a single photon isn't sufficient
to split water, so this evolutionary feat demanded modifications to
primitive bacteria. The problem was solved by using four photons to
split two water molecules, thus releasing four electrons and four protons.
However, this creates a new difficulty, since the photosystem can handle
only one electron at a time.
To
solve this, photosynthetic plant cells developed a special catalyst
called a water oxidizing clock - a unique biochemical ratcheting cycle
to stabilize water splitting reactions so electrons transfer one by
one in intermediate steps. The photosystem stores energy by separating
positive (H+) and negative (e-) charges on opposite sides of chloroplast
membrane. To do this, an array of special enzymes absorb a photon and
efficiently convert light into a widening separation of electric charge.
In
darkness, the clock settles into a stable, low energy state (S0). When
chlorophyll absorbs a photon, the photosystem is boosted to a higher
oxidation state (S1), and releases an electron and proton. A second
photon shifts the oxidation state higher (S2) and frees a second electron.
A third photon is absorbed, oxidation steps higher (S3), and a third
electron and second proton are freed. The highest oxidation state (S4)
occurs with absorption of a fourth photon, and a fourth electron and
two protons are liberated.
The
clock then removes four electrons from two bound water molecules, releases
O2, oxidation drops from S4 back to S0, and two new water molecules
are bound to the photosystem, completing the cycle. The protons produced
by splitting water reduce carbon dioxide to carbon and water; the carbons
are bonded together (polymerized) to form rings that become sugar, and
chains that become amino acids and proteins.
Thus,
the water oxidizing clock is a five step cycle. It begins with binding
two water molecules, and ends with a release of oxygen (O2). The water
splitting clock strips four protons (H+) and four electrons (e-) off
two H2O molecules, leaving two oxygen atoms and a chain of carbons.
The two oxygen ions quickly combine to form a molecule of oxygen (O2).
Manganese
(Mn) is crucial to water splitting, since O2 isn't produced unless four
Mn atoms are present in a photosystem. Mn is a catalyst which can share
two to five electrons with other atoms, and assume five stable oxidation
states (+2 to +7). Mn has several unpaired electrons which, like tiny
magnets, interact strongly with external magnetism. So Mn complexes
in the photosystem are paramagnetic—they become magnetic when
in a magnetic field. Mark Mead reports Mn, like nickel, forms B12 analogue, and is causing widespread soil depletion of cobalt.
Thus,
a photosystem is really a magnetic field. Magnetism's role in biomolecules
and cells is a revolution in science, and provides insight into the
geometry and action of enzymes such as in photosynthesis. Proteins bound
in chloroplast membrane form a solid state subspace where electrons,
protons and ions are ordered and altered in resonant cycles. The water
oxidizing clock runs in five part synchrony, so its design geometry
is the pentagon. The clock cycle itself is a model of the second law
of Oriental philosophy.
A few more notes
from a recent correspondence ...
The 5-step
water-splitting clock is a technical-conceptual solution to our energy
troubles. Plants perfected a hydrogen energy economy nearly 2 billion
years ago. Photosynthesis pries four hydrogens off two water molecules
to release 4 electrons and 4 protons -- the common currency of chemistry
-- to power molecular machinery of carbohydrate synthesis. In analogy
to current car engines, plants use photons as electric sparks to ignite
their true fuel -- water. Plants "burn" water, using sunshine
rather than conventional electrolysis.
That elegant, symmetric porphyrin ring
of chlorophyll is like a drumhead, with a skin stretched over it, and
at the center of this tautly drawn skin, a crystal gemstone (magnesium)
is embedded -- in tension, in tune, ready to be struck by an incoming
photon, to bounce and boom, resonate and rumble, turning solar rays
into ion pulses, making bing become bang.
Of course, since the physical world is
really a PHI-cycle whorled, that 5-step photosynthetic center is built
of PHI-ratio cycle spirals of electron orbitals imploding into the reaction
center vortex, all in fractal PHI symmetry. Plants use photosynthesis
to burn water by implosion rather than explosion.
The
Universal Yoga Mandala may be used to assist you in Yoga self-diagnosis
and application.
Use it with wisdom and care, as you are fully responsible for all outcomes
of your practice.
The assistance of a living teacher may at times be a necessary and precious
addition.
However, remember that Nature is the Great Teacher,
and the ultimate Guru is within your own heart.
"Everything
in the universe relates to the number 5, one way or another, given
enough ingenuity on the part of the interpreter...
The Law of Fives
states simply that: All Things Happen In Fives, Or Are Divisible By Or
Multiples Of Five,
Or Are Somehow Directly Or Indirectly Appropriate To
Five. The Law of Fives is never wrong." Principia Discordia
dodecahedron. 
