To Infinity and Beyond!

Jivamukti founder David Life discovers that practicing mula bandha makes the body less earth-bound.

By David Life

There were only three of us in a clean, polished cement room—and him. It was our first lesson with this world-renowned yoga master. He struggled to express himself in English, but what he could not express in words came through in his touch, a touch that expressed his years of devoted yoga practice.

Sweating profusely, we had come to the end of our asanas for that day. In Full Lotus, we planted our palms alongside our thighs and pushed down, lifting our seats off the floor in mock levitation. Suddenly, as we strained to stay aloft, this imposing man began shouting, "Contact Uranus!"

Contact Uranus? What the heck is this guy talking about? I wondered. I had visions of little green people and orbiting space stations. I don't know how long it took me to realize that what my teacher was really saying was "Contract your anus, contract your anus." He was trying to tell us to apply mula bandha, the energetic lock which allows a yogi to perform the most challenging tasks with little or no effort.

Now, more than 10 years later, I realize that "contacting Uranus" is not a bad metaphor for what the spiritual master was really telling me to do. Though it might seem to be a simple physical movement, contracting your anus with awareness can be the first step on a trip toward contacting your cosmic identity.

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