Dissolve It to Consciousness

The Practice of Layabhavana

Layabhavana is an ancient yogic technique that can be remarkably effective in all practices of yoga as well as in daily life. The word comes from Sanskrit and means to ‘dissolve it into Consciousness', or ‘dissolve it into sameness', meaning equanimity. Laya means dissolution or absorption and bhava means attitude or state of being. The technique is to make the effort to dissolve any resistance or emotion that is obstructing your experience of peace or even-mindedness.

It can be used in any situation by first noticing that you are experiencing resistance. The next step is to identify what it might be. Then, hold it in your mind and consciously dissolve it. Here are a few examples of applying layabhavana.

Asanas: You're already familiar with the common technique of relaxing, absorbing, or dissolving resistance in a yoga posture. For example, in a forward bend, you might feel resistance from the legs, the back or the belly. You tell yourself (or your students) to relax, let go, breathe into the resistance, and it dissolves, allowing a deeper experience.

Meditation: Perhaps you are sitting for a session of meditation and certain thoughts or emotions keep arising. You may have used a number of techniques to try to turn the thoughts off, keep them away, ignore them or even engage them. Using layabhavana you can imagine any number of ways to dispel the thoughts. For example, imagine they are dissolving from a rock to a powder, turning liquid and flowing away, or burning in fire. Or, place them in the great expanse of the ‘sky of the mind', like steam absorbed by air.

Emotions: These techniques also work well when you have a strong negative emotion or another person is influencing you with negative emotion. One of my favorite examples is the frustration that can arise when dealing with one of those telephone menus that so many companies have today. Here, you can imagine more aggressive means to dispel the emotion. These might include the image of crushing a clump of dirt in your hands, breaking rock with a sledge hammer or melting ice with fire. Or, they can be soothing, like calming a pet through soft language.

The technique of layabhavana, obviously, is limited only by your imagination. The points to remember are to identify you have a resistance, then work to dissolve it yourself, rather than place blame. By ‘dissolving it into Consciousness', you untangle yourself from negative thinking, flow more easily with resistance and maintain positive energy.