Humming the shadow home

Reading from Tuesday, November 22, 2011 yoga class

There is more to a body than flesh and bone.  The body is a unity of the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual, but we don't always live by that understanding.  What follows is from the Native American tradition and offers a simple explanation for those times we do not feel all together. 

One tale is about how the person's shadow lives a life of its own.  Each night, when one lies down to sleep, the shadow departs, going out to explore the world it is not free to explore during the day.  The shadow may become quite intrigued by the large and strange world, and be reluctant to return home at daybreak.  So it is necessary for the person, early in the morning, to hum the shadow home.  Each person has a song that only its shadow will recognize, and the shadow must obey the hum.  If one is too busy, or too thoughtless, to hum the shadow home, the whole day will be difficult.  Until the shadow comes home, the person is not whole, is not all together.  It is like the person who got up on the wrong side of the bed--part of him is still missing.  Humming the shadow home is necessary for harmony, for inner unity.  

                                                                Mary Jose Hobday
                                                                in Western Spirituality
                                                               edited by Matthew Fox

I found this in the book  "Spiritual Literacy: reading the sacred in every day life"  by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

The more I read about yoga and related topics the more I see and know that there are different ways to look at things.  I have heard my teacher, Laura Spaulding,  speak on the koshas.  I also studied them when I went to Kripalu and did the week-long Yoga Nidra training.  The koshas are fascinating...at least to me.  There are five layers (koshas) to our bodies:  

First kosha is the Annamaya Kosha, the physical body, the food body
Second Kosha is the Pranamaya Kosha, the breath body
Third Kosha is the Manomaya Kosha, the mental/emotional body
Fourth Kosha is the Vijnanamaya Kosha, the wisdom/intuitive body
Fifth Kosha is the Anandamaya Kosha, the bliss body

You can look at these koshas like lampshades or like Russian nesting dolls.  The physical body is the largest and then the koshas get progressively smaller, until you get to the Atman or soul... your true self that is always the same, always shining... we cover our soul with all these layers and all our soul wants to do is shine its light. 

So... the Native American take on the koshas is about the layers being like shadows and you have to hum them home... isn't that just a wonderful thought.  I love it.  So... how do you hum your shadow home in the morning?  By taking a walk?   Meditation?   Silence?   Morning routine?    Some food for thought. 

I ended my reading for today with a quote that I found on Christina Sell's website.  I want to preface it by saying at my Tuesday class, I kick it up a notch or two or three...depending.   I love the dedication and sense of adventure that my Tuesday class bring with them.   Here's the quote:

"The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth."    by Dan Rather