Some time ago I encountered a metaphor I liked about one aspect of a relationship between male and female qualities. It suggested that male creates a space in which female can express itself. Male will do hunting and gathering and in doing so enable female to create family. I often need to remind myself that male & female is not man and woman. We all have a measure of both in our personal constitution. Please keep this in heart as you keep reading and I will do the same as I continue writing.
Another metaphor that stuck with me from my creative work with Shahar is “space & place”. It comes up often when we explore relationships between a performer, a performance space, other performers, elements in a performance space, audience, intents, motivations, movement, etc. It is a perspective that inspires me.
I see a connection between Male & Female and Space & Place. A space is empty, it contains a potential for something to happen. I have often observed Shahar create a space – it is a practical task of removing unnecessary objects, bringing in light & air, cleaning the floor, stirring energy. It takes an active pursuit of intent to create a space (in which creativity can reveal itself) – it feels to me like a male quality of doing. Then when a space is present there is a feeling of delicacy – there is a divine container. I have often observed Shahar (and others) enter and move in a space – and it feels like a female quality, a soft embracing, inviting, curious, appreciative state of being. When this happens a space becomes a place – it absorbs context, it becomes specific.
It occurred to me that this metaphor can also shed light on womb. Womb is an expression of male that exists inside a female. It takes male presence to transform this space into a place – a place where life is born, a space of creation. It takes a female presence to nurture it with patience and sacrifice.
On a divine-consciousness level, we always feel whole and connected. On a basic human level, we yearn to experience this sense of connection and unity. We generally seek this experience through our relationship with others… This desire to re-experience this unity is the basic force that draws parent and child together… The karmic forces that draw parent and child together represent their commitment to explore the divine aspect of life.
I have an image in which male and female dance one within the other. As if there is endless pattern in which one gives birth to the other – female in male in female in male. A pattern in which a continuous spiritual existence can resonate freely. A pattern that embraces human existence and survives it. It gives me hope, it gives us hope.
It’s great to be in a position where you want to understand something. This is a situation in which two great things are happening for you. First something is shimmering for you and catching your attention. Second you are motivated to get your mind around it – to create an understanding. You now have energy to move and a clear direction in which to move. How wonderful is that?
Motivation is usually hooked up to something deep inside, something beyond the mind, because if you think about it is not a sensible thing. Motivation can bring you into situations that to the mind may seem impossible. Yet all the motivation in the world will not get you moving – for that you need mind. Mind is capable of creating movement – it can use senses to create movement inwards (smell, touch, sight, etc.) and it can express itself and create outwards movement (speech, motion, etc.).
This is a charged situation. Motivation wants to move towards some shimmering thing and it depends on mind to do it. Mind is facing what may look like an impossible direction (completely irrelevant to more important survival duties with it is charged) and is compelled to move towards it by motivation. Because this relationship carries a tension it can be useful to remember who is in charge of what – otherwise the relationship gets messed up. Motivation is responsible for choosing which way to go. Mind is responsible for going there.
This understanding comes in handy when perceptions gets clouded, and if you are driven by motivation then it is very likely that you will encounter cloudy perception. Movement towards something shimmering is not a straight path, it is a twisted and challenging path. Your mind will constantly issue progress updates. At times, when the mind feels that it is clearly moving in the “right” direction, it feels it is aligned with motivation and it will send reassuring thoughts. At other times it may feel like it’s moving in the “wrong” direction and it will send distressing thoughts.
When you encounter distressing thoughts from mind it’s time to review what is actually happening. Remember – motivation tells you in which direction to go and mind does the going. Your mind is (rightfully!) now applying pressure to change direction and before you do that you can stop and consult with your motivation. If your motivation agrees with your mind then by all means reassess and if necessary change. But if your motivation remains true to it’s original course then you have an opportunity to make a choice.
@SirKenRobinson 4 new site: check out BuddyPress – with some good intentions, implementation, mediation I feel would work great with ur work in reply to SirKenRobinson#
we have launched FEM in Romanian, pilot users ready and willing … english version coming soon … more on that soon 🙂 #
@SofiaMB @ronenk I don’t recommend hosting with GoDaddy if that is what you are considering #
Last time I wrote about quality I focused on Dynamic Quality. This time I want to focus on Static Quality. I often catch myself favoring Dynamic Quality over Static Quality – and I know this to be a misapprehension. I cherish moments in which I experience Dynamic Quality – they are a precious experience to me. But then my dogmatic mind kicks in and instantly identifies that because Dynamic is good, static must be bad. This it the nature of my mind, but it is wrong. Static Quality is everything that leads to and away from Dynamic quality. Static is the ordinary routine of life – it is where I spend most of life, and it is what paves the way for me to encounter Dynamic.
So I think Static Quality deserves a bit more attention. It seems that Robert Pirsig did too. His second book Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals is dedicated almost entirely to this subject. Though I found it to be less inspiring then “Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, I have found in it a perspective that supports me in life. As I write these words I realized that indeed “Zen…” is an inspiring book that often comes to mind in creative context (Dynamic Quality) while “Lila” is a more intellectual book that comes to mind in dealing with day-to-day life (Static Quality).
Static Quality
This article was born when a visual image came to me. I hope it turns out to be an effective means of communication. This image starts with a blank canvas where static & dynamic quality meet and coexist. It may seem kind of empty – but actually for me it contains a core idea: all of life, existence & perception is a result of a meeting between static quality and dynamic quality.
This meeting of qualities gave birth to inorganic patterns of quality. This feels to me very close to a core concept in Samkhya Vedic Philosophy – which claims that existence is a meeting of two forces (qualities?) – consciousness (Purusha) and matter (Prakriti).
If I recall correctly Pirsig speaks highly of carbon and the choices it made (and continues to make). It seems that carbon felt it would be a good idea to continue to evolve into organic patterns – living cells and tissues. We should be grateful for this choice – these bodies in which we reside are a result of the choices carbon made when it encountered dynamic quality.
These biological patterns (you, me and your average human being and a huge diversity of forms of life) started to make their way in life and realized it would be a great idea to group together and face dynamic quality in packs instead of individually. And so social patterns emerged.
Our lives are flooded by social patterns – family, friends, work, hobbies, religion, neighborhoods, cities, countries, laws… it really is an endless list. Many of these patters are buried so deep inside us that we never notice their existence. It seems that social patterns were indeed a great choice since they gave birth & life to another set of patterns – ideas – patterns of intellect.
An Interplay of Patterns of Quality
Robin Williams claims that “God gave men a brain and a penis but only enough blood to operate one of them at a time”. Many truths are bundled into this hillarious observation. We are constanly at war.
Patterns are co-dependent and co-exist. I have great ideas because there is time and space for me to have them. I have time because of social patterns that do a lot for me – so I don’t need to put up a shelter and go hunting every day.
Patterns are at war. When I am ill biological patterns take over and make sure I do what they need me to do to get better (!). Concentration and focus become fuzzy and primitive patterns can take over – resting & eating. It would take tremendous effort (battle!) on my part to reassert social and intellectual patterns when biology is in play.
Patterns are vicious. Primitive patterns inhibit evolved patterns. Evolved patterns attack primitive patterns on which they depend to achieve freedom to continue and evolve. Revolutionary intellectual patterns are enemies to the very social patterns in which they grew. Society has very little tolerance for ideas of change and will usually work against them. Ideas of change struggle with existing social patterns – initially on the brink of survival and sometimes to sustain change. Struggle has been and continues to be a theme in my life.
Static patterns are doing their best. One thing patterns have in common is that they are all doing their best – and so they feel and believe that way. When I have a great idea my intellectual patterns are sure they know best (and can be rather vicious if they encounter other intellectual patterns that don’t agree).
Dynamic is better. Yet another thing patterns share is that they are all facing dynamic quality. Better is always just around the corner, out of reach and unknown. Better is something that comes at me, not something I can go to. I can be open to it and realize when it visits me or I can be dull and miss it even when it looks me in the eye. I noticed that the phrase “Dynamic is better” stimulates my mind into action and my mind attacks it – takes it apart, explains it and argues it. When this happens I try to remind myself that “Dynamic is better” is not an idea – it is a truth I choose to embrace. My minds reaction to this – coming to life with energy and movement – supports my choice. It is not a matter of rational or understanding it is a choice of faith.
Applied Quality
Dynamic quality is a source of inspiration for me. It is not “applicable” to anything – any attempt to apply it mindfully is futile – everything slips off it. I have faith in Dynamic Quality. My experience is that it comes to me when I least expect it. The path to it is approached and paved with surrender, patience, clarity and intent. It is a sweet experience.
Static Patterns are the stuff of life. In my short indulgence of philosophic studies I recall (1) a criteria – that a system of philosophy needs to be available and applicable by non-philosophers; (2) that the systems of philosophy that were then placed before me lacked inspiration and definitely lacked applicability.
Pirsig’s philosophy is, in my mind special because (1) it has traveled down the academic road and has evolved into a system of philosophy known as Metaphysics of Quality and (2) is a useful tool in facing many issues that appear before me and occupy my mind. I have a recurring experience of trying to work my way through a topic of interest to me, getting lost and then recalling the ideas of Static Quality which then show me a simple, sensible and interesting path.
Closing Words
I take comfort in the development of this visual image because of the empty space that remains where Dynamic Quality exists.
When the first Gulf War was raging in 1991 Israel was under constant attack. People were walking around with gas masks and injections awaiting the sirens. During one of these days my little sister, then 6 years old, accompanied my mother, who was a teacher, to school. My mother said that at one point, in the midst of an alarming siren my sister sat there drawing a serene picture – something like flowers and the sun (I don’t recall the details). My sister’s perception at the time was focused on a different plane then that of the people around her.
What if I were to tell you that this is not a phenomenon of children but of people?
What if I were to tell you that we all have an individual focus which affects what we percieve, what we sense and what we conclude about the world?
What if I were to tell you that there are people with a complete different perception then yours & mine?
What if I were to tell you that these people see and know things that you and I don’t?
What if these people claimed that something big is happening right now?
What if these people knew that we were heading into a storm most of us simply cannot fathom?
What if these people told you that if you only knew what they knew, you would be able to see how petty your worries are?
What if these people told you that was happening is for the better, even though you may not be able to identify what it is that’s getting improving?
Would you be able to listen? Would you have enough doubt inside to find an opening and a space for a different perspective? Would you be sensitive enough to appreciate their effort and draw strength from it?
I have taken these few moments to write you because Firefox has had a place in my heart for quite some time – I have enjoyed it, benefited from it & passionately recommended it to others.
Recently (some months) Firefox is failing terribly – it is constantly crashing. This causes much frustration because, as I am sure you know, the browser is an core application and most of what I do at the computer relies on it.
The real harm though is that Firefox is loosing it’s place in my heart. I have witnessed over the past years your amazing uphill battle to become a competitive browser and I have seen the world embrace you. To lose this would be a waste and a shame. Please don’t let this continue.
Please do what it takes to make Firefox work properly, please don’t leave a hard earned and well-deserved vacant space in my heart. Please be aware that this time, time is NOT on your side.
Now that we have a familiar basic movement and some experience of locational ujjayi breathing, we can try to bring the two together and create a complete experience of breathing and movement.
Revision
We will be using the same movement we used when we first introduced movement – raising the hands above the head. A quick reminder: the starting position will be lying on your back, arms along side the body, knees bent & feet standing.
Then as we inhale the arms are raised above the head (remember: to really get your entire arm onto the floor, this may require that you release the shoulders and bend at the elbows – check to see that you get all 10 finger nails, both elbows and both wrists on the floor).
Try just this a few times to make sure that the basic movement and breath experience is available to you. The basic coordination is arms are raised during the inhale and returned on the exhale.
Next, place your hands on your body, one on your chest the other on your abdomen. Take a few breaths to recall the ideas of locational breathing: inhale to the chest, exhale from the abdomen. If you don’t remember the nuisances, go back to the previous article in this series and take time to assimilate the ideas. When you’re finished reading, again practice for a few times. It’s not enough that the mind learns, the idea is to give the body a chance to learn. Practicing gets the job done!
Inhale to Movement
Assume the starting position and prepare as if you are going to raise your arms above your head. Then begin locational ujjayi breathing but don’t actually move your arms. Instead brings your attention to your shoulders. If you can bring the inhale effectively into your chest, you will find that the expansion in the chest will cause movement in your shoulders. As if the breath itself is bringing motion into the shoulders. Take some breaths to get this sensation.
When you can feel your breath affecting your shoulders I invite you to go ahead and lift your arms. This time you will be continuing the momentum that has originated in your breath. Focus. Make sure that you first feel movement in the area of the shoulders that originates with the breath, then let your muscles come into play and continue that movement. Repeat this a few times. When you have finished release your breath and stay attentive, give your entire system time to relax and assimilate the experience.
Exhale to Movement
Now let’s try to find an anchor for experiencing the relationship between exhale and movement. To do this again assume the starting position and as you inhale raise your arms above your head all the way to the floor, but this time leave them there. Continue breathing locational ujjayi breathing, but leave the arms resting on the floor above the head.
Now bring your attention to the exhale and the active involvement of the abdominal muscles. Try to use the abdominal muscles on every exhale to press the lower back to the floor. Repeat this a few times (arms still not moving). Get a sensation of pressing the lower back to the floor. When you have that then again bring your attention back to your shoulders. You may now find that when you exhale your shoulders are now being pulled back toward the center of your body. Keep practicing until you get some sensation of this.
You can now reinstate movement and resume a dynamic practice, but stay focused on the exhale and the returning arms. Again try to make sure that first you feel the pulling in the shoulders and then have the muscles join that effort and bring your arms back. Repeat this a few times.
Full Circle
What’s left to do now is of course to bring it all together – exhale, inhale and movement of the arms. Stay focused on the shoulders and the affect of the locational breathing on them. Try to let the breath lead you into movement.
As we continue to build the relationship between breath and movement we are accumulating more details and more subtleties. Take time to review, to go back and to make sure your attention contains the many details we have explored.
If you feel you have got a good sense of locational breathing and movement I invite you to try one more thing. Repeat all of the excercises in this article but this time change your position. Stretch your legs so that they are straight on the floor. All the rest remains the same. See what happens : )
My teachers often refer to a model of energy which describes a fire burning inside us, it is the combustion sub-system of our energy system (there are other sub-systems that play other roles). It is said to be located in the abdominal (apana-stana) area – it feeds on air that comes from the chest area (prana-stana) and burns ashes that are located in the lower-abdominal area.
Fire governs digestion and elimination. Like a combustion engine, it runs on a mixture of air and fuel. Air is supplied by the breath. Nutrition plays a key role in supplying fuel. The quality and quantity of the fuel can affect the fire. When it burns well food is digested effectively and efficiently, and wastes are eliminated in a timely and regular fashion. Otherwise – it can cause the system to overheat and become acidic – causing ineffective digestion (heartburn) and elimination (constipation/diarrhea).
The ideas of digestion and elimination also reflect interestingly on qualities of the mind. Digestion can be viewed as a quality of perception. When the fire burns healthy there is clear perception, when it burns low things can go unnoticed, when it burns high we misapprehend – we imagine things that are not there (a quality of over doing). Elimination I feel warrants a deeper exploration – but for now I would align it with purification of perception. For example, when memories of the past and expectations of the future are purified – there remains a clear sense of that which is present.
Yoga practices affect the fire, established practitioners can use yoga techniques to manipulate the fire. Breathing, as both a dedicated practice such as pranayama, and in conjunction with asana, can have a drastic and immediate effect on the fire. Breathing techniques can and do affect the fire in seconds or minutes. Intake and digestion of food usually takes at least a few hours to transform and affect the quality of fuel (and indeed you will find that some intense yoga practices require a careful diet – often one that supplies the body with nutrition which can be easily and quickly transformed into fuels). Both fuel and air have short & long term accumulative effects on the system.
I have this image of a metal-worker who has just finished manufacturing a fine tuned machine part. I see him running his fingers over it’s surface to feel it. This affectionate gesture is a key ingredient in quality assurance.
This came to me as I am working on some code (PHP server with a Flex/AS3 client). I encountered some poorly implemented components and the quality thing to do was to improve them (this is sometimes referred to as re-factoring). I have decided not to do that and it’s bothering me, but I am sticking with my choice.
Working with code means there is nothing tangible to run my fingers over. Actually “running my fingers over a component” in programming is called unit-testing – it is achieved by “activating” the component independently and checking that it behaves properly. Debugging tools are required to do this – they provide a means to activate, control and inspect the component. The environments & tools I am working with (all open-source) are missing functional debugging capabilities and tools.
I am not running my fingers over my components because I don’t have the tools to do it. Because I don’t have tools to run my fingers over my components I make lower quality components, which sometimes don’t function as expected, which force me to fix and change my components. Because I have a lot of fixing and changing to do, a lot of the time I spend coding I am in a “failed” state of mind. Because I am in a “failed” state of mind I am not passionate about what I do. Because I am not passionate about what I do I create mediocre components – which require quite a bit of “running fingers over”… and on and on…
Why is this bothering me? I like to like what I do. I like quality, I have great faith in quality.
Why did I choose to stick with what I have? There is a bigger picture in front of me. The code is part of a larger project. The quality of the project can tolerate the existing code. Quality needs context – I can continue to pursue the highest quality code, but that would be at the cost of a higher quality process. If & when it will become relevant, the project will create a context for me to go back and to improve the code.
My take on this:
Get good tools
Appreciate the tools I do have
Aim for uncompromising quality
Compromise quality when it’s relevant
Have a bigger picture so I know what is relevant and what is not
I woke early this morning, just after 5am, sneezing with a runny nose. I’ve had some kind of allergic reaction for many days now. I surrendered to it when it arrived, got out of my bed and on with my day. This morning the allergy surprised me because it had let up over the past day or two (I think Andreea made some kind of personal sacrifice to make it go away).
There were very fierce winds outside. Though we live in the hills, the winter is pretty much over and the winds were not typical. Around 6:30 I got an SMS from Doron and we set to meet at 07:00 to go for a walk. I stepped outside to find that the air was warm despite the intense winds. As I started walking I really took in the wind, it felt like a powerful force of change. It seemed to have an agenda. I though that wind is my element and opened up my arms to take it in and let it take me.
On the way I picked up a rock. It called to me. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it, but it did call to me. I picked it up and took it with me. If fit nicely in my hand. The wind was unbelievable. It was all over the place with no clear direction. It’s sound had layers – there was a sound close to the ear of howling, there was rustling in the trees, there was a roaring sound coming from high in the sky, like a jet plane, only it wasn’t passing by it was steadily there, and there were also short moments of silence.
I reached Doron at 07:00 as planned and we set out for a walk in the hills. We had a chance to touch base, we don’t meet often and rarely have time to share, Doron is a very busy person. We talked about our lives, work, about life in general. It was a nice walk. There was revealing and revelation in the air. The wind did not relent. What powerful forces of change.
When we reached Doron’s place we separated and I continued on my way home. It was now just past 08am. I noticed the rock again in my hand, I had forgotten about it though it was me the whole time. By now the rock was a power object. Shortly after it came back to my attention I saw on the left side of the street a young boy, he was waiting for a school bus. He noticed me too, and shifted position to see me. He was standing behind a low fence and he came near the fence to look over it at me. As I saw him move I realized the stone in my hand was for him. I approached him, handed him the stone and told him it was a magical stone and that he should it keep with him all day.
He accepted the stone from me in both hands and the first thing he did with it was take it to his nose and smell it. I wished him a good day and continued my way home.
A week ago (April 23rd) I participated in a second performance of Shitafon. I was asked and I want to share something about the performance but I just came to terms with the fact that”s not going to happen, at least not in the near future. I do have thoughts on the periphery of the performance and those I do want to put down.
My usual part in performances is as photographer using live stills. In Shitafon I am listed as photographer – but photography is not a part of the performance. Instead I write live text that is projected into the performance space and I play Shakuhachi. This performance was a special one because this was the first time I left the house without taking any camera gear. 2 years ago I was frightened to enter a performance space, sometime later I found confidence in hiding behind the camera. Now for the first time I entered it naked. This to me was the highlight of the performance.
I am blessed for the opportunity to perform with Shahar & Yael. More then anything else (even more then meeting an audience) this performance was an opportunity to step out and meet myself. I wished, and still do, that we (Shahar, Yael, myself and Tamar the lighting designer) had more opportunities to explore together before the performance. That did not happen – there isn’t space for it.
I came to the performance with a sense of distance. Partly this is because I did not get to spend time with my fellow-performers. Partly this is because I have distanced myself physically. Partly this is because I have set aside my creative ambitions and given them a lower priority to focus on making a living. Partly this is an indication of the “state of the art” in Israel – I had to pay to perform.
During the weeks before the performance I spent time with a book Shahar recommended to me Coltrane: The Story of a Sound. I found inspiration in the book, I listened to Coltrane, I wrote Coltrane. My creativity found peace with Coltrane. The day after the performance I completed the book. In the last sentences of the book I found this:
“It [Jazz] is an art that thrives on what it can do, not so much on what it does. ”
This is why I went to perform, this was the quality of my presence, and this is how I left the performance behind. Thank you Shahar, thank you Yael, thank you Tamar, thank you Coltrane and thank you Ben. Thank you for giving my perception wings and an open sky.
For some years I’ve been living my life without Media (TV, newspapers, radio) – and my life has become better for it.
I initially liked twitter because it had an unknown quality to it – talking to nobody… yet people listening – who knows where that can go.
Twitter is no longer about unknown – it is more predictable – it is about ambition, it is about selling… more followers…celebrity… attention economy… bla bla bla…
Twitter is now generating more noise for me then interest. It has a tinge of entertainment value – but hardly enough to justify the noise.
I can still find a smile and place in my heart for twitter… but I don’t have faith in it’s future.
There are more affective (primitive – like email) means of communication for those people with whom I wish to communicate or who may wish to communicate with me.
Twitter is no longer about twitter, it is about making money from twitter.
I blog mostly for myself, though it’s nice to know others read it as well… but not really important.
I update twitter mostly for myself, though it’s nice to know others are listening … but not really important. My twitter updates are aggregated to my blog.
Over recent days I have shut down my online twitter clients and instead occasionally visited twitter.com … less and less…
I am embracing this new twitter consuming pattern… it feels better now.
So in a way – this is a sort-of-Goodbye twitter
If you are of the few people with whom I’ve been actively communicating through twitter please know I am no longer there like I used to be. I’d love to keep in touch with you – it’s easy: iamronen [at] iamronen.com . If you see my status updates in twitter – please know that I am not very likely to see your responses – at least not in real time. So if you really want to respond – write me.
After thoughts..
I’ve have a theory churning in mind about what’s currently happening to twitter – it has to do with quality. I don’t have any idea what’s going to happen with twitter, I don’t want to and I don’t really care – it’s not important any more. I do know that its quality is decreasing and going to continue doing so – and I have a feeling that in some correlation to that – it’s value will rise. I am not big on theories so I don’t know if I will get around to putting it into words. If I will – I will send a twitter update about it 🙂
such a gift to work with people who are master listeners, I can say how I feel and they listen without creating ripples, so I can hear too #
@gapingvoid goodbye, there was a shimmer, then it burned/sold out. I am disappointed, but choose to stick with the original appreciation. in reply to gapingvoid#
money represents value, value is a residue of quality, if it’s got a price tag… well… good chance that quality is long gone! #
RT awwww… you guys, I didn’t know 🙂 @ronenk: @TalSh I do. #
@gervis flexibility – is about being able (open?) to bend when change places its weight on you, flexibility embraces surprising change… in reply to gervis#
A friend asked me what Shakuhachi sounds like. It took me some time to find an online sample that I felt expressed the potential of this instrument. Here it is. Enjoy 🙂
Starting a new Yoga series of posts. This time the topic of energy is shimmering for me. As always the ideas I bring here are my take on teachings I have received from my teachers. I have made them mine and you are welcome to make them yours.
So I’ll start by shattering a myth on energy. It is misapprehension to view energy in terms of quantity. You can not have less energy or more energy. Paul often uses an effective metaphor – you are born with an engine – and that engine has a fixed capacity. How well you maintain it and how effectively you use it is to some extent up to you. But nothing you can do will effect the capacity of your engine – your energy capacity.
An alternative model of thinking about energy is quality. To generalize we can mention and relate to three modes/qualities of energy. The first is one in which our energy is diffused. This is often referred to as low energy. It is a state of agitation – when your energy is like this you literally take up more space, you bubble is bigger than your physical body. If you think about it, when you are agitated you can get really annoyed with people coming near you – this can explain it.
A second mode of energy is a more collected mode. You energy is near you and therefor more “at your service”. This can feel like you have more energy. I think it’s safe to say that most people that go to weekly Yoga classes are coming with a diffused energy. If you happen to go through a quality and effective practice you may end up more collected. This often brings with it a sense of quiet, clarity, lightness, alertness, etc.
The third mode of energy is a highly condensed mode. Your energy is now not just collected but also drawn inside the body. This can feel like hyper-energy. Most of the people I have known in life rarely visit this mode. I feel that it is mostly a myth for the main-stream western world. It requires a very intense, conscious, continuous and passionate practice to go anywhere near this mode of energy.
Often, people that come to Yoga:
Come diffused and on occasion may end up collected.
Think they are collected and expect to reach condensation.
Take up a Yoga practice that matches their expectations.
Are pushing and mistreating their engines.
Are actually coming diffused and staying there.
Next time when you are feeling “high energy” or “low energy”, I invite you to try this alternate perspective. You may find it useful. I don’t know of any “energy stations” where you can “acquire energy”, but I am sure you can think of things to do that can help you to collect your energy and to keep it from diffusing.
is dedicated almost entirely to this subject. Though I found it to be less inspiring then 
The third mode of energy is a highly condensed mode. Your energy is now not just collected but also drawn inside the body. This can feel like hyper-energy. Most of the people I have known in life rarely visit this mode. I feel that it is mostly a myth for the main-stream western world. It requires a very intense, conscious, continuous and passionate practice to go anywhere near this mode of energy.