For the last number of years, I have been realizing something astonishing about living through a body. I first started noticing it in my yoga practice. The subtle energy within my existence, especially as it emanates through my spine, ascends. Simply put, it moves upward and away from the planet.
This experiential, existential truth, however, is paradoxical. This upward, subtle energetic movement becomes undeniably tangible only if I simultaneously ground down toward the earth, that is, through my sitting bones if I am sitting or through my feet if I could stand. You can feel it too. Sit up straight and tall. Push down through your sitting bones, press down through your inner heels, broaden across your collarbones and back ribs, and balance your head over your neck. Feel the upward ascension, tethered by that grounded sensation through your base. This simultaneity is accessible in every moment of your existence.
For this transcendent fact, I am grateful.
What’s crazier is that this grounded ascension is true whether one is lying down, standing up, or completely inverted like in headstand.
It also got me thinking. There are many theories and stories about why our evolving life force went from all fours to standing upright on two feet. Most of them are applications of the theory of evolution: standing on two feet gave us the ability to carry loads with our hands while moving; it increased our sight line; it allowed us to throw things, including punches; it helped us reach for things, and on and on. I am sure that some versions of all of these theories are true and aided our survival.
But I think there is another story among these stories. We are incredible sensing beings. We do not always get it exactly right, but we are brilliantly intuitive truth trackers. Changing the relative position of our spines to the earth from horizontal to vertical allowed us to follow the simultaneity of the grounded ascension more directly. For beginning yoga students, it is easier to realize the subtle flow of life force along a vertical axis as opposed to a horizontal one. So too as human beings moved to upright, we increased tangible access to an underlying energetic truth of existence. One of many results is that something started to grow, refine, and activate at the top of our spines, that is, our brains developed.
Put another way: Our awareness became more expansive as we gained more connection to the grounded ascension of the Universe. Remember, gravity binds us to the center of the earth while the Universe is expanding in every direction, which, from the perspective of the earth, corresponds to ascension. I do not think it is a coincidence that we are the only species to truly master the upright position and we have created stories of heaven and the Divine. These conceptualizations tend to point skyward.
We are manifestations of the energy that we inhabit. This energy both surrounds us and flows through us. It keeps two feet driving through the ground while simultaneously expanding into the cosmos. So too our consciousness.