Back to Yogirama's Homepage

Lines of Awareness(Updated April 19, 2016):
These notes will be updated as necessary to help answer some of the questions raised by the students in my class.

PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THE INFORMATION BELOW WITH THOSE WHO ARE NOT IN MY CLASS AS I CANNOT ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS BY E-MAIL. THE FOLLOWING GIVES A BROAD OUTLINE ONLY FOR WORKING. THE DETAIL CANNOT BE SHARED BY WRITTEN WORD. IT HAS TO BE SHARED IN PERSON WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS LEARNED IT EITHER BY SUCH DIRECT CONTACT OR BY GREAT ATTENTION. THERE IS NO OBJECTION IF YOU SHARE IT WITH YOUR YOGA STUDENTS BUT PLEASE DO SO ONLY AFTER YOU HAVE WORKED AT IT FOR THREE OR FOUR YEARS.

The following work is in progress and is compiled with the help from my students and friends. I will be happy to consider any additional contribution from a student or a friend.

Why work on Lines of Awareness?

Working on the lines of awareness in asana and pranayama will, at the very least, help discover areas where focused attention can lead to a deeper practice and understanding. This work will also help with subtle alignment in poses, where a minute shift can bring life to a pose. Sometimes an attempt to pay such focused attention causes other underlying tensions to surface. It would be beneficial to learn to keep the focus and at the same time to let go of such tensions.

Quite apart from such rather obvious results this approach will train the mind to later work with Nadis and Cakras. Much more importantly such work will help create a deeper focus on philosophy and psychology of awareness. A brief description of what awareness means at a very deep level is given below.

What is Awareness?

The human language has always struggled to express some of the understanding about consciousness, awareness, brain, mind, time, life, etc. For our communication here may I present some temporary brief meanings with great hesitation? These may very well be revised later.

Some people claim that God exists; others say there is no such thing. Some claim that there is one universal mind, one universal Consciousness. Let us begin by saying we neither accept these concepts as facts nor reject them; we are simply seriously interested in finding out.

May we therefore begin with the ordinary sense of what consciousness is? It is what seems to be alive in a body, and in a brain and without which this body and this brain are lifeless. By a living entity we refer to the human being. A little more specifically, when we say dead we are referring to brain-dead even when some parts of the body appear to be functioning.

Brain is the physical organism which has evolved over time and in which there is an ongoing neurological rewiring going on as a result of every experience. The adult brain weighs about 2% of the body and uses about 20% of body energy. There are about 100,000 miles of nerve fibres, about 100 billlion nerve cells (neurons). Brain is about 77% water, 90% of the brain is made up of glial cells which protect, repair and nourish neurons. Most widely publicized myth is that we use only 10% of our brain; virtually all of the brain is used everyday. Brain receives about one litre of blood per minute. There are no pain receptors in the brain.

When consciousness is present, the brain has the possibility of being aware. Pure pristine awareness gives rise to observation, experience and perception. The brain records these as memory by rewiring or forming more neurological connections.

Mind is the result of the sum total of this rewiring in the brain. It produces thought. Such thought is necessarily built on or is the direct result of the past. When such thought is accumilative and is logical it builds knowledge. Such knowledge has tremendous value in dealing with the outside world. In the inner world however this thought arising from memory of feelings, and psychological likes and dislikes, seems to create an image about who I am. This thought created I-image forgets that it is the product of awareness and behaves as though it came before the awareness. If the awareness clearly sees this game played by thought there would not be a problem. However, the pristine quality of pure awareness is disturbed. It now functions with this I-image at its center. In that process it separates the I-image from the experience. This I-image completely forgets that it is nothing but the result of accumulated psychological experiences created by likes and dislikes. The I, the experiencer assumes to be separate from the experience. This ego then rules over the consciousness.

The way out of this quagmire may be to see if that pristine awareness has the possibility of functioning outside of the psychological time and hence outside of the field of I-image created by the psychological thought.

This ability of pure awareness to see what is rather than what the ego wants it to be can fortunately be tapped. It requires a very great deal of seriousness, a passionate sensitivity and an uncompromising honesty to see the incredible cleverness of the conditioning of one's own mind. Relentless observation by pure awareness without the center of I-image is meditation.

Repetitive demands for pleasure or for escape from what is has damaged most human brains. It is wise to begin to repair this damage with simple awareness of these lines.

There is nothing magical or special about these lines and these points; you can have different lines and points of your own choice. For now, however, in order that you may work in the class with me along with other students it would be helpful to stick to the lines suggested below.

General Information about the Lines of Awareness (LoA):

1. LoA are straight lines, never curved.
2. LoA are located on both the left and right sides of the body, but one side is not symmetrical to the other.
3. LoA are predominantly in the back of the body rather than the front, the back signifying the unknown, the unconscious.
4. The two points connecting the LoA are located in the specified general area. The exact location of the LoA endpoint varies between practitioners. Generally the point is located where there is greatest ease of awareness in that local area; however, in the absence of such ease, the point may be one where there may be pain or discomfort or even a point where the mind has difficulty to have awareness.
5. Initially the LoA and the points may be thick or fuzzy. Thru diligent practice, careful attention, and passionate interest the LoA will become very fine and focused. It is important that this is allowed to happen, and not willfully forced. The mind is simply aware of this unfolding, rather than trying or struggling to achieve it.
6. Make sure that the breath is not suspended to create this awareness. The awareness manifests itself; it is not created by ego.

Methods to locate LoA within the Body:

This needs more practical guidance and instructions that will be given in the class. As a general approach you may use either or both of the following methods:

1. First approach is to be aware of the first millimeter of the line. As you hold an asana (or in a movement like surya namaskar or in pranayama) retain the awareness in that first millimeter. Once that is clear become aware of the second millimeter, then the third, the fourth and so on, keeping a continuity from one to the next so that the line becomes longer and unbroken. To begin with you may find this easiest to do in savasana. It may take as long as seven years to go through all the lines with a great deal of awareness and sensitivity; there is no hurry whatsoever.


2. The second approach is to be aware of each line at a time rather than millimeter by millimeter. In that case there is awareness of one straight line after the next, as you practice an asana or pranayama. Later there will come an ability to be aware of everything simultaneously.

Line to the Foot: (see chart Foot Line)

Inner ears - reticular formation - mid thoracic - diaphragm - top of the buttocks - inner hip bone - outer head of the femur - inner top of thigh bone - outer knee to inner center of the heel bone.

First Line to the Hand: (see chart First Hand Line)

Inner ear - reticular formation - mid thoracic - inner top shoulder blade - inner top of the humerus - the small finger.

Second Line to the Hand: (see chart Second Hand Line)

Inner ear - reticular formation - mid thoracic - outer top head of the humerus to the index finger.

Further Refinements: In addition to the inner ears (sound) the lines can also begin in inner corners of the eyes (sight) or corners of the lips (touch) or inner corners of the tongue (taste) or corners of the palate (smell). All these lines of awareness culminate in reticular formation which is regarded as the seat of consciousness. Also click on the following links:

Cakras and Nadis.

Kosas, Sariras and Nadis.

Cakras Chart.

Cakras Notes.

Back to Yogirama's Homepage