### Answer Key **1) Explain the general method of performing the physical mudra called the “Skydancer.”  Describe three methods of preparing the body for this practice, and comment on the importance of this practice in our immediate yoga tradition.** **We turn our tongue backwards and attempt to insert it into the nasal opening at the back of the palate; we then set our gaze upon the spot between the eyebrows.** **In the text, it describes the process of being able to stretch the tongue all the way back up into the nasal passage so that we can stimulate the spot between our eyebrows with our tongue.  There are three methods of increasing the ability of the tongue to reach back.** **The first of these would be to practice wagging the tongue, sticking it out and moving it back and forth.** **The second would be "milking," which involves wrapping a piece of cloth around the end of the tongue and then pulling on it to lengthen it.** **The third is to gradually cut the frenum restraining tissue that connects the tongue to the bottom of the mouth.  The instructions for this operation are found in our text: we cut only the width of a single hair at a time, each week, packing it with tumeric and salt in between these times to prevent infection.** **There is a milder version of this bandha, where you simply press the underside of your tongue against the upper palate, either just before the bump on the hard palate, or stretching back to the soft palate.  The former stimulates the ajna chakra directly above it, and the latter stimulates a small chakra found in the upper palate called the lalana or tongue chakra.  In either case, it serves to direct the mind inward and sharpen concentration, which can then be used to understand emptiness more deeply.** **However, this form of the Skydancer practice is not considered that important in our immediate lineage.  There are other ways of doing the Skydancer, very deep practices, which we'll be learning, and these are absolute vital to our spiritual advancement.  These practices require considerable preliminary training, and then a formal initiation.** **2) ==Master Svatmarama says, with regard to preparing the body for the physical version of the Skydancer practice, that we should "always be careful to proceed in a way that fits the circumstances."  Explain what this phrase refers to here in this section and with our yoga practice in general, also giving the primary Sanskrit term here, along with its root and cognates.==** **The relevant Sanskrit word here is _yukta,_ which comes from the same root as _yoga,_ which is √_yuj,_ meaning _to join._  The "join" here means _apply,_ in the sense of _fit_  the circumstances.** **This again means first of all that we should only undertake any practice of hatha yoga if our immediate Teacher has specifically told us to do so.  This is especially true in the case of an extreme practice such as cutting the frenum of the tongue.  In other words, _it is our Teacher_ who will know how we are to proceed in any given circumstance.** **This also applies to our own daily practice, whether it be in meditation, yoga asanas, or the service of others.  A student by definition might easily overdo a practice and hurt themselves, or not push themselves far enough in a practice and thus hurt themselves in even a greater way.** **We see constantly throughout the _Yoga of the Sun and Moon_ that we are to proceed in a sensible, middle way: steady modest effort is always preferable to extreme gestures, and one of the greatest goals of a spiritual practitioner is to learn to pace themselves properly (_yukta_) over the long run.** ==3) Master Svatmarama says that "if we are able to embrace the intersection of the three," then we will reach "the real Skydancer, which is also known as the Wheel in the Sky."  Explain both this intersection and the meaning of the Wheel, giving also the Sanskrit for both.== **In our mudra practice up to this point, we've been working on the lower end of the central channel: at the triple junction of the three principal channels just below the navel—the area where inner fire is triggered.**  **Here in the physical practice of the Skydancer we are instead working on the opposite end of the central channel: the place between the eyebrows where the upper end of the central channel is circled by the two side channels, which themselves continue down to either side of the nose.** **In this mudra we fix the vision on the ajnya chakra and bring up the mental component of the Mahamudra: a meditation on emptiness while we work at a crucial point.  We see this Mahamudra connotation later on in this section, where the Master says that "when the tongue has gone to dance in that space, the mind then dances in its own space."** **This emptiness meditation is the "real Skydancer" mentioned in the verse.  The "wheel" here is our wisdom, or our knowledge.  The sky is a common metaphor for emptiness, since the very definition of the sky is "that which is empty of obstruction."  The wheel moving through the sky is our wisdom moving through the object of emptiness, freely.** **The Sanskrit for _intersection of the three_ is _tripatha,_ where _tri_ means _three_ and _patha_ means _path_ (the corresponding cognates are obvious).  The Sanskrit for "Wheel in the Sky" here is _vyoma chakra.  Vyoma_ means _sky,_ and _chakra_ is _wheel._** *4) Swami Svatmarama says that "if we are able to keep our tongue up in this place for even a fraction of an instant, we are free from the effects of illness, death, and aging."   Explain two meanings of this statement. **The main point here is that we have lived millions upon millions of years in suffering, with no idea of the emptiness which is all around us—something which could save us from this pain if we could only see it directly, just once.  The extraordinary thing is that it takes only ten or twenty minutes to see emptiness directly the first time: twenty minutes that could have saved us millions of years of suffering—and so are really only a "fraction of an instant."** **This same expression, "fraction of an instant," is sometimes also used in scripture to remind us that—as opposed to many other spiritual paths of India and Tibet—the high methods of yoga are actually designed to help us attain enlightenment within a single lifetime.  Compared to the time we have already spent in the cycle of suffering, this is only a "fraction of an instant."** *5) Master Svatmarama says that "seeds will never soil" a person who masters the Skydancer.  Explain the two meanings of this statement. **As we saw in the final chapter of the Yoga Sutra, seeds are explained in the yogic literature as being of three types: black, white, and neither.  Black seeds obviously refer to any action we do—or word we say or even thought that we think—which hurts another living being.  White seeds are any positive action we undertake.** **Both black and white seeds though have a problem: they are infected with ignorance.  For example, we give some money to a poor person, but without conscious reflection upon how they have come from us, and of how the money given to them is actually given to ourselves.  Deeds performed without this awareness is called "impure", because they wear out.   A certain amount of money will come back to us from our generosity, and then that seed will wear out and we will again be left back where we started.** **Seeds which are "neither" black nor white is what we call "pure" seeds: deeds, words, and thoughts which are done with that conscious intention and knowledge.  These deeds never have to wear out, because we are doing them with the intention of helping limitless beings (which makes the results limitless) and we are doing them with the clear intent to "re-invest" their power.  That is, when the money comes back to us, our knowledge is so strong that we know we must again give away more, and continue to do so, to create an infinite upward spiral.** **Another point of this verse is that a yogi who is a master of emptiness is able, again as we saw in the Yoga Sutra, to actually destroy the storehouse of seeds.  This is done in the early stages by utilizing the four powers of the destruction of negative seeds.** **In later stages, the yogi's perception of emptiness is so strong that negative seeds will never go off.  And even much earlier, during the intellectual study of emptiness prior to the direct perception, we reach a point where the specific seeds for a lower rebirth can never go off again.  We are thus "unsoiled by seeds" in two senses, once we master the real Skydancer through beginning with the purely physical one.** **6) Master Svatmarama says that "a person who uses the Skydancer to seal the opening above the uvula will never lose their semen, even if a very desirable woman should take them in her embrace."  Explain how this is the case, being sure to explain what an uvula is!  Comment finally on the relevance of this section to a female yogi.** **The uvula is the small bag of flesh hanging down at the back of the palate.  It serves to help block the air passages when we swallow.  Here it is used simply as a reference point for the opening through the nasal passages which the tongue of the well-trained yogi passes through to reach the area of the ajnya chakra.** **When the tongue does reach this area, then in effect we are sealing off the upper opening of the central channel.  This "freezes" the movement of prana in this channel, in the way that water is retained in a drinking straw when we seal the upper end with our finger.  The movement of prana within the central channel which is reflected in the release of the grosser white element of semen is thus prevented.** **A female yogi doing the Skydancer practice would also be learning to retain their own sexual fluids.  This is not mentioned directly in the text because for many centuries in India and Tibet the hatha yoga practices were largely reserved for males, in a patriarchal system.** **7) Master Svatmarama says that we should "restrain the essential drop."  Explain how this restraint is occurs physically; then speak about its effect on the inner winds, and the benefits that might accrue.** **The "essential drop" here is a reference to the semen and—as we have seen—to the sexual fluids of the female practitioner as well.  During the course of sexual stimulation, these fluids in both the male and the female undergo a preliminary shift towards the opening of the sexual organ.** **In a male practitioner, this is reflected in the wording of the verse about "coming to the sphere of the vagina," meaning making its way close to the point of coitus.  In some texts it is even noted that it can be unhealthy for a practitioner of either sex to attempt to restrain the fluid subsequent to this shift, since it remains in a halfway position to the opening and begins to rot there, taking on toxic qualities.** **This points up the importance of the practice of sexual celibacy for practitioners of yoga.  Although it is not considered strictly necessary for success in yoga, and indeed there are—as we shall see—practices which involve yogic practice by a couple, nonetheless there are great physical and spiritual benefits to making a decision to spend a certain periods of time in sexual celibacy.** **During the sexual act, large amounts of prana are normally lost during the process of the initial opening of the central channel during orgasm and the subsequent opposite reaction, where this channel shuts down like a clam, causing physical and emotional depression.** **As the verse here says, "the movement upwards is lost," meaning that the desired reversal of the downward-clearing wind to help in the ignition of inner fire has been completely lost with the downward clearing of the semen and related inner winds.  As such, it is desirable for many practitioners in certain stages of their development to abstain from sexual activity altogether; and in more specific circumstances (as the verse says) to apply bodily seals internally to prevent this loss of prana.** **8) Comment on Master Svatmarama's statement that a yogi who is able to keep the tongue firmly in the area between the eyebrows wins the "victory over death" within half a month.** **This point brings us to a more general observation about hyperbole or exaggeration in the yogic texts.  Probably at one point or another every great Teacher of hatha yoga has told one student or another that every different yogic practice is "the most important one."  At different times and in different circumstances and with specific students, this really is the case.  And so we shouldn't think it necessarily exaggeration at all when we see in our text that _every_ practice listed is _the most important_ one.** **Teachers also want to inspire students, get them excited, and so they wax eloquent on the benefits of all the practices.  In Asian spiritual literature, to say that _every_ practice is "by far the best one" is not considered illogical or exaggerating.  Once we are truly able to practice them, every pose is a literal lifesaver, and deserves to spoken of in high terms.** **This applies also to the time periods promised in the text.  A perfect student working under a perfect Teacher directly probably could reach deathlessness in six months.  Our own Teacher might tell us imperfect students that we could reach the same state in six months just to keep us going strong, and then in six months tell us that it might take another six months, and this is for our own good.** **There is a final form of exaggeration that occurs in many yogic texts where, for example, it is written that we should be able to hold our breath, even in the very beginning stages, for a full five or ten minutes.  This is a kind of exaggeration that was hard-wired into the instructions to prevent sadhakas from working from written sources without the direct guidance of a personal Teacher.  The idea is that any beginning sadhaka who breaks the rules and tries to practice these things on their own for the length of time listed in a text will surely get discouraged within a few days, and then hopefully go and seek a real Teacher to help them.** **9) What does it mean to say that "even the venom of Takshaka cannot make its way through a body filled with moon nectar"?** **"Takshaka" is the name of the King of the Nagas.  The nagas are spirit beings that are not normally visible to humans.  They resemble huge snakes but are sentient like humans, wise and spiritual, and often frequent places near bodies of water.  They are also attracted to spiritual practitioners who are working on the inner body: there is a sort of resonance between them and the kundalini uncoiling within a hatha yogi.** **The venom of these spirit serpent beings though is said to be particularly toxic; and we can put it at the top of a long list of the different toxins that we encounter at every turn in modern life: emissions from vehicles; petrochemical products like plastic, even in our clothes; paint in the houses we live in; preservatives in our food.** **A yogi whose inner winds are flowing smoothly is much less vulnerable to these toxins: they have a strong natural immune system, as anyone who does their asana practice on a very regular basis has already noticed.** **In this case the yogi has gone further in this advanced work on their winds and is keeping celibacy in the sense of retention of the white element or "drops of moon nectar" encouraged by the physical Skydancer mudra.  This makes them even more invulnerable to negative influences and, in the end, evolves into a state beyond death itself.** *10) Master Svatmarama talks about a "fire continually fed with logs," or a lamp fed constantly with oil.  What important principle is he referring to here, and what is its opposite?  Give the Sanskrit word for the opposite; including its root and cognates. **This is the same principle as we saw before with the way in which a successful yogi is no longer "soiled by seeds."  That is, the yogi who truly understands emptiness is fully aware of how to create a cycle which is the opposite of what is known as a "sansara" cycle.** **This idea of sansara is vital to understand, if we are to understand its opposite.  Sansara is normally explained in its overall sense of a vicious cycle of rebirth where the actions that we take in one suffering life create a replay of the same suffering life.** **This "grand" sansara though is only a reflection of smaller sansaras that we set in motion countless times every day.  Someone gets angry and says something unpleasant to us; we respond with anger; and that plants the seeds to see another person get angry with us later on.  And when this later person makes their appearance to upset us, we start another cycle with the tail-end of the first.** **Here in this verse though the Master is talking about trying to set an opposite cycle in motion: a continual upward spiral.  A common example here would be the act of generosity.  We give a poor person money, staying fully aware that doing so is to give even more money to ourselves, in the future.** **When that result comes back to us, we "re-invest" the money on the tail end of the previous cycle, by giving a portion of it to another needy person.  This then becomes like a fire fed with a continuous supply of logs, or a lamp fed with a continuous supply of lamp oil: a continuous upward spiral.** **The word _sansara_ comes from the prefix _sam_ meaning here _very much,_ and the root √_sir,_ meaning _to flow._  We sometimes see the combination _sr_  turning into _fl,_ and so the words _flow_ and _fluid_ actually also come from this very root.  The idea is of a downward cycle which continues to flow on and on unless we can break it.** **Yoga asanas with a wide split-leg stance are sometimes called _prasarita,_ reflecting this same root.  A common error incidentally is to pronounce and write the word as _samsara,_ which is confusing the transliteration with the pronunciation.**