Pratipaksa Bhavana
Pratipaksha bhavana
It is no secret that the US political system is divided. There have been challenges dating back to the country’s founding as different parties hold deep beliefs in the “correct” way to do things. Each party pushes their agenda and thereby pushes into the path of the other party trying to push their agenda. This results in gridlock most of the time and the sense that nothing gets done. We used to be able to compromise more, but sadly, this is not the current landscape.
The saddest part of this is that there are real bridge issues where both parties could happily agree with each other. Unfortunately, this does not happen because no one wants to work with the other party’s plan and be seen as handing a victory to the other party. Gridlock results in the president coming in to make executive orders for anything to get accomplished. This was never supposed to be how government worked.
In nature and art and architecture and all systems including within the body there are examples of opposing forces working together cooperatively. The breath comes in AND it goes out. Muscles expand AND contract. The tide comes in AND it goes out. Right and left sides come together to form a sturdy arch. The solid bank holds the flowing river. In each of these instances, one “side” does not have to win for there to be success, and one party does not have to lose, or rather, to be seen as a loser.
The word Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word “yeug” meaning union, yoking or joining. We can surmise this means joining the individual spirit with God or the yoking together of mind, body and spirit. But I also hold that Yoga is practiced in everyday interactions between opposing forces. When we press palms together in namaste position, we join left and right sides. Pressing hands together helps to uplift the upper body. One side does not need to win. Both sides win as they help the other find center.
Patanjali’s Yoga sutra 2:33 tells us “When oppressed by negative deliberation, cultivate the opposite side.” I glean from this is what is NOT said. It is not said – when oppressed by negative deliberation, beat the negative into submission! To my mind, cultivating the opposite emphasizes the gentle word “bhavana … - cultivation; imagining, fancying; forming in the mind; to occupy one's imagination with, conception.” In other words, trying every mental trick at your disposal to gradually bring up the opposite point of view. This is not the same as suppression. This exercise takes acknowledgment of a pattern, a desire to adjust that pattern, a willingness to try out different strategies do adjust that pattern and offering the time and curiosity to do the actual work. Cultivating the opposite is an empowering practice that suggests we are never stuck where we are, and we must employ awareness and curiosity.
To go back to the simply physical metaphor, pressing the palms together engages and wakes up some muscles in the arms and upper back. If you were not actively pressing them together, you might not have noticed those muscles. What other small and simple actions can you engage to cultivate the opposing force to postural patterns? If you normally slouch, try clasping hands behind your back; if you weight one foot more than the other, try shifting that. You might get discouraged with how engrained patterns can be, but if you stick with the exploration, even if you don’t “fix it,” you might just discover the pathway out of that pattern.
It is also possible that some physical and mental patterns are so engrained that they won’t change. In these cases, it is interesting to explore how we respond to a door that seems closed. Do we give up? Or can cultivating the opposite create an awareness that allows us to act consciously around our obstacles?
Pressing right and left hands together is just a small example of ways to cultivate the opposing action. What other ways might you cultivate the opposite in order to uplift you and bring you to another level of understanding?