Tropical Dharma

Urania Moth,  Madagascar

The wisdom of the middle path is illustrated nicely by how biology responds to the middle lands of the equator. The vast and kaleidoscopic emergence of life will emerge metaphorically in our yoga practice if we cultivate the middle path, the sweet and honey'd middle, free from extremes. With tropical 12-hour days and the balance of light and dark (prana and apana) in our own, internal planetary microcosm of the body a sort of metaphorical life explodes in response. This is the highest yoga tantra and the realization of indra's net. This is the gateway to the unlocking the ecstatic energy in the body, and for me, the beauty of the tropical landscape is an undeniably ecstatic, obvious manifestation of kundalini (even though she is everywhere).  The stillness of the weather patterns, too, over the equatorial portions of the tropical seas (the doldrums) reflects what happens when the mind is absorbed in the central axis of the body equanimously. It is the same stillness (sama), which crippled trade in the days, when the seas were only traveled by sail. The stillness that forced our predecessors us to halt and consider their place in a vast whole. It is a stillness bursting with energy.