In his classic book, Light on Yoga, Iyengar called yoga “the science of religions.” If this is the case, it’s most fruitful experiment might be an endeavor known as spiritual autolysis. The term autolysis simply means “self-digestion,” and since the Spirit is that aspect of the human being which surrounds the mental, emotional, and physical aspects, spiritual autolysis is the process by which you allow your Spirit to digest everything about you that can be digested. All your false identifications, all your erroneous assumptions, everything you take for granted is slowly eaten alive by your Spiritual enzymes.

I am starting this website to be a record of my own experiences with spiritual autolysis. It is a distillation of self – my distillation of Philip. Who or what is Philip? What is he capable of physically, mentally, and emotionally? What is his relationship to the world and to those around him?

Using a variety of techniques, these are the questions I will be asking myself. Ultimately, the task of spiritual autolysis – and of self distillation – is to ask myself what’s True until I know.

Do you know?

You might be wondering, What is the role of madness in all this? Why am I a yogi gone mad? Well, my efforts in self distillation thus far have proven that the most difficult part of the process is getting over what Alan Watts called the “hoax of egocentricity.” This is the ego’s pulling of the metaphysical wool over all our eyes. it is an elaborate lie, which purports quite convincingly that one day you were shuttled from somewhere else into this world at birth and that one day you will be shuttled out just as quickly when you die. It says that what you are is something different than what I am – that what’s out there, what’s outside your human body, is completely separate from what you are, what’s in here.

This is the classic illusion of duality, and belief in its appearance is so important to society today that to refuse participation in this “ego game” is akin to madness. Indeed, in psychological circles, sanity is judged by the development of a solid sense of self in relation to others. What I have found in the process of spiritual autolysis however, is that the dividing lines are not as clear as my ego would have me believe. As I get to know my “self” better, I find that what I really am cannot possibly be what society has taught me I am.

As psychologist Jack Engler said, “You have to be a somebody before you can be nobody.”

So this is my journey from a somebody to Nobody. It isn’t a journey for the faint at heart. It isn’t easy. Sometimes it’s downright painful, and it can appear callous to friends and family. Even so, it’s not terribly complicated. In the words of Jed McKenna, just “Sit down, Shut up, and Ask yourself what’s True until you know.”

What’s True, however, can lead you right into the heart of madness, and while that realm is commonly considered to be a bad state of mind, I would not be the first person to see value in it. Aristotle said, “No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.” There are numerous other quotes along these lines, but I’ll just mention one more by comedian and actor, Robin Williams – “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”

So this blog will be a chronicle of my efforts to keep alive this spark – this fleeting suspicion that the hoax of egocentricity ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. I hope this blog will be a tool to help me coax a few flames from that spark, and to one day fan those flames into a raging inferno that will burn to a crisp my erroneous assumptions, leaving in their place only what is True.

I’ll still write more structured articles on my other blog at BrickhouseBodymind.com, but this will be the place for more personal and random ramblings. A large part of this blog will be a record of my daily physical practice, which is a unique combination of mixed-mode Hatha Yoga, resistance training, and various forms of cardio. Getting in touch with the body is a powerful way to outrun the mind and get right to the present moment. Its felt connection with the world is a true blessing.

I’ll also share random thoughts on personal transformation, moments of inspired writing, as well as my experiences with meditation. If you find any of this interesting, you can watch my distillation of Philip right here – one day at a time.

Peace …

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Rantings & Ravings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.