May 26, 2026 - Ocean Waves
It’s said that under the waves of the cosmic ocean, at the very bottom of the world, the supreme god Visnu (pronounced vish-noo) sleeps upon a massive serpent of infinite coils. In his slumber Visnu dreams the world into being, his mental visions becoming the blueprint, the inner cause, upon which all of creation is then built. Creation, the manifested reality we experience with our senses, is secondary to those mental visions because it’s built out of imperfect and perishable materials. All those fleshly materials can do is aspire to accurately creating the Visnu’s grand blueprint. Of course, they will fail in the end. But Visnu’s dreams will not, always providing a perfect ideal that, like a locus of gravity, creation will try to gather around and give form to. That, some say, is the true reality.
It’s no coincidence then, that Visnu is the god associated with sattva, the final guna we have to explore. Sattva is also associated with the dream state, where mental visions arise to reveal the true nature of our consciousness and thus the world. Where tamas is about the dark and the silent and rajas is about transformation and creation, sattva is about unity. Sattva is the force that brings things together, that collects and coalesces, that agglomerates and integrates. By doing so, it becomes the guna that sustains our reality, that holds things together. Like Visnu’s dreams, it gathers the other apsects of creation to it in order to realize that perfect creative blueprint. Whether or not it succeeds, well… that’s not really the point.
So what does all this myth and metaphysic mean for us? It suggests that beyond our lived experience, there’s a deeper, truer reality at the heart of our existence. And sattva is the force that can help unite the many disparate parts of our experience and begin to take us inward towards the core of that reality. The root of the root, so to say. Sattva is charcterized by subtlety and by light, so we use subtler practices. Movement of energy in the body, refined breathwork, imaginal work. These help us to amplify our own sattva, bringing our focus to the deeper elements of our being.
We began our practice with an opening savasana (corpse pose) with a bolster under the knees and a blanket on top of the belly to help identify how the breath moves the body, but also as a tool to help us begin with sama vrtti, the equal breath, establishing an even count between inhale and exhale.
From there, we:
Did some supine hip, knee, and ankle mobilizations, as well as some hip and hamstring stretches.
Moved to table top, practing cat and cow pose and then flowing between child’s pose and cow pose over a bolster.
Laid down for a bhujangasana (cobra pose) series, extending long and up through the mid back.
From here, we moved into an adho mukha svanasana series - down dog. Here, we began to explore imaginal, energetic work in asana. On the inhale, we visualed energy drawing from the periphery into the core of the body, and then energy dispersing from the core outwards on the exhale. Students described it like feeling an ocean wave moving through the body. For our purposes, we can call this inward energy and outward energy (a modification of a principle from my former yoga school - Anusara).
After that, we moved through:
Shalabhasana (locust pose) over the bolster
Uttanasana (forward fold) and utkatasana (chair pose) with hands on blocks
A low lunge series including the lunge itself, a twisted variation, and a variation straightening the front leg with the hands on blocks (sometimes called runner’s stretch)
A prasarita padottanasana series (wide-legged forward fold). We brought new emphasis to inward and outward energy, adding in twists and malasana (garland pose, or yogic squat).
Thigh stretches at the wall
And hindolasana (baby’s cradle pose), a seated hip mobilizer.
We went into an extended pranayama practice, starting with sama vrtti. Emphasizing the even, precise count of the breath, we breathed in and out with a very delicate flow of air, barely disturbing the rims of the nostrils. After about 10 minutes, we transitioned into sama vrtti with kumbhaka, meaning retention. We added a more subtle form of bandha (energetic seal) work to this, engaging the pelvic floor, diaphragm, and throat. We inhaled, held the breath with the three bandhas, and exhaled, all for the same amount of time.
We followed with savasana. Students reported feelings of deep quietude and energetic movement. Ocean waves, baby :)
Saprema, y’all. See you soon!