Our Deepest Knots

I’ve been working though a bit of a backlog of old article ideas. A good while back I took a yoga class with an even more effortless, bliss-producing approach. They spoke about our deepest burdens. The body tries to maintain a balance in the physiology (physical and energetic). Stress is our adaptation to change and the attempt to restore balance in the face of it. But sometimes, the trauma is large and we put aside some of the resolution for the future to return to balance today. If we don’t do our housecleaning later or don’t develop the skills for it, over time those unresolved items can collect and become a pit of denial.

The deepest stresses, knots (granthis) or plugs in our energy physiology are along the spine and in the primary nadis. These are residues of unresolved disappointment, doubt and the rejecting of others.

The kundalini tradition describes these granthis as knots that block the free flow of energy. It’s not that they’re a total plug or we’d be dead. But they serve as a restriction, much as the build-up of plague in the blood vessels can cause trouble. In the case of the nadis, they describe it as a waxy substance.

This is energetic however. That will have physically related consequences over time but it’s not like we need a rooto-rooter. What we need is the profound silence of samadhi that brings a deep rest to the physiology and also the opportunity for our unresolved emotional baggage (resistance experienced subjectively) to be resolved. Creating a positive emotional space really helps there. Allowing it to be as it is. Self-acceptance. Proper unstrained effortless yoga is also useful due to the location of these restrictions.

Unloading our deepest knots takes time and profound moments of release. But even the movement in that direction is the winding down of the growing backlog. It is the moving away from karma making. It is the approach to the end of suffering.

And that helps set the stage for liberation.
Davidya