Fire: the element of transmformation
Fire qualities are transformation, purification, power, suddenness, intensity, abundance and inspiration. The fundamental expression of fire is transformation, bringing about change, and it is embodied in the technique of bandha. The arena of fire is the abdomen, its source the solar plexus, its medium the nadis, and its key the muscles. It is cultivated and expressed through the application of the bandhas into the whole body (sarvangabandha). The source of this process is uddiyanabandha, which spontaneously generates both mulabandha and jalandharabandha when suppoorted by hastabandha and padabandha. Their simultaneous activation is sarvangabandha.
The superficial application of fire is to generate heat through intensity. This simply disperses heat, and when accompanied by sweating leeches minerals out of the body weakening it. The subtle application of fire is to integrate body, mind, energy and awareness. This is the function of the bandhas in the whole body. Establishing fire requires opposition, the sign of its presence is integration. Fire dynamises the postures, enlivens the body, internalises attention, clarifies the mind and transforms awareness. Without integration (bandhas) there can be no integrity. Without integrity there can be no wholeness. Without wholeness there can be no unity. Without unity there is no yoga.
The bandhas are at the heart of structural and functional integrity. At the same time they have deep and nourishing physiological, neurological, energetic and spiritual impacts. All of which are based on recovering the dynamics of structural integrity. This being so the bandhas are neither obscure nor mysterious. They are simply specific sets of judicious muscular contraction that organise and integrate the body parts into their inherent unity.
