(originally sent 06/07/26)
Recently I was catching up on an online workshop with my teacher Jules Febre, and he was discussing prāṇāyāma techniques. During nāḍī śodhana (where you breathe through alternate nostrils) he mentioned a trick where if one nostril is blocked, you can put something like a rolled up hand-towel under your opposite arm pit, and it will open up the blockage. The teacher who shared this with him said “we don’t know why it works, it just does. So we do it.”
It got me thinking about how often I want to know WHY something works, and what a Western way of thinking that is. Instead of simply trusting that something works, it’s like I need to see the evidence before exploring it deeper.
Of course, it can be healthy to have some trepidation, so as to not be conned. But for the most part, I know for myself, I can fall into the trap of behaving like a two-year-old, constantly asking “why??”
- why do need to practice śavāsana?
- why are inversions beneficial?
- why do we chant mantra?
- why do we say namaste?
There may well be good answers to these (in fact, there are many), but there can also be something magical about simply having śraddhā (faith) in your experience of the moment and the mystery.
In the Bhagavad Gītā, chapter 12, verse 8 — Kṛṣṇa says to Arjuna:
mayy eva mana ādhatsva mayi buddhiṁ niveśaya
nivasiṣyasi mayy eva ata ūrdhvaṁ na saṁśayaḥ
“Place your mind on me alone, focus your intellect on me, and from this time onward, you will dwell in me. (Of this) there is no doubt.”
Ahhh… to have no doubt. What might that feel like?
And besides — there is so much in this world that science still cannot explain. Consciousness for one, is not definable. Neither is death!! Some countries say it’s when you stop breathing, others say it’s when the brain dies. Isn’t that wild?
When we remember that there may not be an answer to everything, perhaps it can get us out of heads and back into the experience of feeling, and trusting in our own experience of WHAT we’re feeling, rather than why.
Do you agree? Let me know.
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