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Fire Ceremony Talk, March, 2016,   16 day Gathering at White Lotus.

We asked for a ceremonial atmosphere because, unfortunately, it’s all too rare in our modern world that we find ourselves sitting with a group of yogis around and ancient, sacred fire, by flowing mountain waters, the wind bath through the trees, the celestial bath above, serenaded by frogs, crickets and cicadas.  Meditating on fire is one of the most potent meditations.  It’s potent in the sense of creating benefit, insight, self-knowledge.  It’s all in the fire.  The yogis called fire a doorway—between the physical and the non-physical, between light and dark, tangible and intangible, life and death.  We’re born through sexual fire, and we live through the fire of digestion, cooking and electricity.  We leave the physical plane through the funeral fire.  Whether you slow the funeral fire down or go directly through it, fire takes back and releases its elements.

One of the things we’ve learned from science is that we are made of earth, water, fire, gas, sound, information, and cosmic energy.  We are the dance of those things watching themselves in the dance and also in the dance of the fire—we are self reflecting, cosmic intelligence.   Our ceremony is an alchemical combination of East Indian, American Indian, Hopi and hippie.  Fire meditation, fire circles, drumming, and music are most probably the most ancient form of ceremony.  So enjoy being bathed in the earth energies as you sit with the huge boulders here, enjoy the waters, the sounds of the flowing water, the bath and sounds of the dancing fire, the sounds of the creatures of the night, the wind, the waters, the voices, and drums. And, we sit enveloped in the celestial light of the stars and galaxies.  

One of the things we point out at these fire circles is looking deeper into things, instead of merely seeing a campfire.  We’re seeing the light of the sun, but really light from combined earth, sun,  air and mystery.  The trees we’re burning built themselves from sunlight, water, air and earth.  We take a mighty tree and reduce it to a small handful of ash. The rest of it was combined water, air, light and information.  When we look across the circle and see others, we are seeing them by dancing light waves and we're hearing by vibrating molecules.  What’s less obvious, even astounding, is that all these waves, vibrations, and energy conduits of information are simultaneously passing through each other in a vast, chaotic quantum soup emerging untouched.   Right here where we sit are numerous layers of sound, light, energies, music, radio and TV shows, all within the space where we sit.  With the right attention or instrument you can tune into any of them.        ... And we’re searching for miracles?

Fire is the doorway into and out of life and the force of living.  It took us, humanity, millennia to see and understand these many frequencies, layers and levels.  It’s wonderful to be able to be here around the fire with all of you and we thank you for making it possible by coming to White Lotus.  

Words from participants: 

Sven: I want to honor, in the Native American tradition, to acknowledge our ancestors—those people who contributed to and enhanced our lives, and got us here.  To all our relations and loved ones: Blessing and thanks. And to the fire, and what it represents--energy and transformation, as you all have shown in your practice and presence.  Energy, sound, light, smoke.  Let us continue the fire in all of us.

2: With gratitude, with reverence and heart opening. Earth, fire and water, return.

3:  At home, preparing for this retreat, I read Yoga Beyond Belief.  It made a lot of sense and I feel I took the right course for the right reasons.  But something in the book didn’t really hit home till this week here.  We can’t learn to fly by following another’s tracks in the sand.  We must find our own wings and soar.  In time we will all soar.

4:  It’s an honor and privilege to be here with all of you.  Every person I met here is warm and genuine—an experience I don’t have every day.  I didn’t know what I was getting into when I came here.  I’m not a flow or vinyasa person but I am learning so much more about yoga than I ever could have imagined and in such a supportive caring environment.  I feel deeply grateful just to be here.

5:  I am so happy to be here.  Yesterday was the hardest day yet here for me.  This morning was one of the best four hours of my life.  I spend the last 20 years looking for the spiritual release that I received. Thank you.

6:  I feel the beauty all around me everyday in this place but especially now, around the fire, on your faces.  Everyone is glowing and happy.  Fire ceremony is amazing and I’m going to hold one at my house when I get home.  Thank you for opening this land to us and teaching us everything you know.  It’s been incredible to learn from you all instead of just from some guy where I live.  You all have taught me so much about myself.  Every night I ‘ve had amazing dreams, with spirit in my dreams and things from my past where I’ve been bogged down. And I feel like I’m moving and opening to new possibilities.  

When we think of flow we think of water flowing along like a river.  Asana flow is most often described as moving gracefully, within and between poses.  It is counter intuitive to think of flow as opposition, but it is balanced, opposing energy that creates flow.  Flow, even of water or liquid, is only possible with the opposition of firm structures to flow over and against while taking shape adjusting to the terrain and obstacles.  To create graceful, fluid movement you must have an oppositional force.  This opposing force is created by isometric leverage or isotonic resistance of muscles, and less obviously, by movement against the oppositional field of gravity.  A classic example is that astronauts in zero g must create resistance to work against or their bones and muscles atrophy.  We are always moving within and against gravity, even while sitting still.  As said in the Gita, there is movement in stillness and stillness in movement.  Stillness is part of flow.  Holding asanas for periods of time is part of flow, just as ponds or lakes can be part of rivers.  The graceful, poised movements of yoga or dance require a balance of control and surrender, and of flow and opposition, movement and stillness.  This is one of the greatest lessons, on and off the mat.     

From a recent talk by Ganga.  

OM is a wonderful, effective, and beautiful way to bring the attention and energy of a group to one place—the same place. When you begin a class and say, “OK, we’re going to start, attention please!” Some are listening, some are not, and it’s hard to gather the attention. When you chant OM, everyone comes to right here and now. It brings everyone right to the present moment. I think that is as good a definition and meaning of OM as anything.

People will ask, “What does OM mean?” You really cannot actually or strictly translate it. It has no definition, it means nothing, and it can also mean everything. The sound is a symbolic sound or attunement. OM points toward something and has import or direction. It points toward everything and nothing, toward what is and what isn’t, and toward the inner, and the outer. Ancient Yoga philosophy had some idea that everything in the universe is energy and vibration. They may not have necessarily understood this scientifically since there were many things they didn’t know or understand, but their idea about the universe turned out to be more or less true—that the universe is made of energy and vibration. Chanting OM harmonizes you with that universal vibration.

OM is said to contain all sounds. The verbal sound starts gutturally with Ahhh, and becomes uuu as the mouth closes, and with the mouth completely closed, becomes mmmm vibrating the top of the head. It is actually not correct, though you will hear teachers say, that om should be broken into the separate vowels a, u, m. Some teachers say it should be chanted with aaa ooo and mmm as three separate syllables, but this isn’t accurate. The letter in Sanskrit is one symbol, one letter, and represents one sound. When that sound is made as one oooommmm you still have all three syllables and sounds contained therein. The aaa, the uuu and mmm are all there and contain more or less the range of verbal sounds. OM begins with a low tone, vibrates low, especially with a deeper voice, and as you close your mouth you feel the sound move up the spine to the top of the head carrying the vibration to the crown.

One way I often translate OM, is “what you feel and experience when you chant it.” There is resonance, there is harmony, and there is connection between everyone, and there is bringing everyone to the same point. That’s powerful, that’s beautiful; it’s simple. And it freaks some people out! Some people may think oming is weird, and I get that. And some also think it’s going to destroy their religion. I’ve taught in churches and some places where we weren’t allowed to chant OM. So I would say, “Well, it’s the same as amen”. They might reply, “Ok then let’s just chant amen instead of OM. Religion is most often programmed in with fear, but that’s another conversation…

OM means everything; it means the vibration of the universe; it means harmony; it means resonance, oneness, connection. OM is part of all that; it is all that. We could also add that you often hear OM
chanted three times. There is no rule. You may chant it once, three times, five times. It’s commonly done in threes, and there may be no provable reason, but there are some good theories, or perhaps truths. There are many threes in life. There are is the higher, the middle, and the lower. There are the body, mind and spirit. There are the past, present, and future. There are you, me, and we. These are some good reasons to chant in threes.

A continuous OM is also powerful and beautiful. The group begins together chanting OM, then lets it go on for however long the group dynamic makes it last. It may go on for two minutes or five minutes or however long it continues naturally. There is the starting point and then just letting the vibration and sound go. Each person comes in and out at their own pace, harmonizing, and tuning to the quality and energy of the group OM and letting that group OM feeling express itself and relate through your own individual contribution which becomes the fabric of the group chant–that is also a profound lesson in life. That is what OM points toward—the vibration, sound and silence of the universe, the one and the many, the inner and the outer, everything and nothing.