Back to Guide Yoga Facts Mudras Back to Asanas "Downward Facing Tree" Essay by Debi DiPeso-Anna

Just as a tree is a mirrored reflection of itself and the Guru is a mirrored reflection of our Self, so can this balancing inversion act as our mirror and teacher, showing us our tendencies and fears and how to overcome them.

Adho Mukha Vrkasana literally means downward facing tree pose. My first reaction when I heard this name was, what does that mean? How can a tree be downward facing, when does a tree face down? Then I realized that all trees can be said to grow upside down. A tree is a mirrored reflection of itself. As a tree's roots grow deeper, its branches grow higher. Some trees' roots grow as deep as the tree is high. A tree's branches and the roots look the same, like the old saying goes, "as above so below." When we think of a tree in this way, we can see how a tree can teach us to transcend duality, bottom and top, up and down, love and hate and so on, are all two sides of the same coin. It's all one. Perhaps this is one reason why trees have so often been revered and even worshipped throughout the ages.

The photographer Andreas Feininger explains how trees grow in his book entitled Trees, "In order to live, a germinating seedling must sink its root into the soil for anchorage and water and raise its stem toward the light. This presupposes a sense of direction, a response to gravity called geotropism. Geotropism occurs in two forms: positive geotropism to which the root responds by growing downward; and a negative geotropism, which causes the stem to grow upward." So the force of gravity not only acts as a support for the tree to grow out of, but it gives it direction. Gravity is usually something that is taken for granted but when we think about it we can see how life springs forth from the pull of gravity, it doesn't pull us down, it lifts us up, it is a supportive force that allows us to grow and lift out of it.

The word gravity has its roots in the Sanskrit word Guru. Guru literally means weighty or heavy. The Guru is a mirror of our True Selves. Adho Mukha Vrkasana, as well as all Asanas can act as our Guru or teacher by mirroring our tendencies, by bringing them to the surface for us to examine and try to move beyond. In this particular pose a very common issue to arise is fear. Almost all beings have an innate fear of falling and when we turn ourselves upside down, staring face down to the floor, we are reminded somewhere deep inside of this fear. Practicing this pose can help us to move beyond fear, to realize that the pull of gravity is not our enemy, it will not just suck us into itself, if it did we could not stand upright.

What allows us to stand up to the force of gravity is alignment. If we did not have the proper alignment in our skeletal system we could not stand up. The same can be said whether we are standing on our feet, head or hands. When we stand on our hands in Hand Stand, if the alignment is correct we will lift up, the negative geotropism will lift us up out of the earth in response to the positive geotropism which pulls us down. Then we can find balance. Yoga teacher, John Friend, said that "balance is the midpoint between effort and surrender, a state in which firmness and suppleness unite."

Inverted poses that bring us upside down, directly affect our thought and emotions. They make us physically look at the world differently, then from there, we can start to think differently so that we don't get stuck in the same old habits. We make ourselves shake things up a bit, turn them around and upside down. Then we become stronger and more confident. When we learn to let go, to trust ourselves, to trust the universe and to know that we are supported, we will begin to rise up.

Preliminary Exercise
Hand stand helps to build strength in the wrists, arms and shoulders, and expands the chest fully, it sends extra blood to the organs, calms the mind and brings tremendous energy. Before coming into hand stand practice try this exercise. Stand facing a wall, take the hands flat on the wall directly in line with the shoulders. Walk feet back away from the wall until the back is flat, legs lined up under hips and the body makes an L shape, a ninety degree angle. Stay here and lengthen the tailbone, push the wall away with your hands, feel the shoulders move down the back and away from the ears and press your feet firmly into the floor. Close your eyes and let your body's own memory register this feeling within, remember how this position feels. Open your eyes, push away from the wall and come up to stand.

Turn to face away from the wall. Come onto the hands and knees bringing your heels up the wall, balls and toes of the feet on the floor. Make sure the hands are under the shoulders (you can use a belt around your upper arms if you want to) spread your fingers apart and press the palms firmly into the floor. Straighten the legs again coming into a modified Downward Facing Dog pose. Take your left foot off the floor and place it flat on the wall right behind your left hip, press against that foot and lift your right foot up and place it flat on the wall right behind your right hip. Press firmly into the hands pushing the floor away and straighten the legs bringing the torso and legs into a ninety degree angle. Stay and breathe, make sure the hips are directly over the legs and shoulders are lifting away from the ears. If you feel steady here, you can take one leg off the wall and straighten it up over the head then place it back and switch legs. When done release and rest in Child's Pose.

Beginning Practice
Come onto your hands and knees facing a wall. Bring your fingertips about one foot away from the wall and press the palms into the floor. Spread your fingers wide apart and rotate your upper arms out, bring this crease in the inner elbows to face forward to keep the chest open. Curl your toes under and straighten your legs coming into a short, modified Downward Facing Dog pose. Start to walk your feet in towards your face and lift the shoulders away from the ears, letting them move down the back. Bend your right knee and lift your right heel off the floor. Keeping the left leg straight, bring your left big toe on the floor. to get acquainted with the lifting up of the leg, just raise and lower the leg a few times. Then add small hops off the floor and back like donkey kicks. When you are ready inhale , raise the left leg and hop with the right leg at the same time, straightening the right leg as soon as it leaves the floor, bringing both legs to rest up the wall. Lift head and gaze beyond your hands.

In the pose, work to straighten the elbows, keep moving the shoulders away from the ears, lengthen through the tailbone. Pull the abdomen in and try to move the feet further up the wall. Try to line up your shoulders, hips, knees and feet. You can experiment with coming to balance taking one foot off the wall at a time and then trying both together . (A good prop to use when practicing this way is a belt around the upper arms to keep the arms in line with the shoulders and keep the elbows from bending into the weight of the body). Hold as long as possible, then release down.

Continuing Practice
After you have mastered jumping up one leg at a time, try jumping with both legs together. Prepare the same way coming into a short Down Dog, bend both knees, lifting both heels up and take small hops keeping both feet together. Try to jump bringing the heels to the sit bones, knees facing up, then try to straighten legs overhead and hold. An even further place to take this is to try and jump with both legs together keeping the legs straight and then eventually, not jumping at all, simply lifting both legs up off the floor together and taking them overhead. When you feel ready, take the practice away from the wall to the middle of the room. Work on starting with small donkey kicks trying to suspend the lifted movement for a moment before coming down. As you build strength in the arms and shoulders you will be able to lengthen the suspension and eventually take the legs to hand stand.

Although the word Guru means weighty, another translation of the word is "one who removes darkness", the Guru leads us to the light. Practicing Hand Stand posture we realize that ultimately we are weightless, we are pure energy. When we let go of our fears and move into realms that are new to us, we realize that we are not who we thought we were. That is what a teacher is, one who shows us who we really are. Teachers come in all forms, as people, as Asanas, even as trees. When we start to have glimpses of who we really are, then we can start to recognize our purpose here in this life. Andreas Feininger said, "I think about the purpose of all life and ask myself: What is the purpose of a tree? What is the purpose of an animal? What is the purpose of man? And it occurs to me that perhaps the purpose of all living things is simply living - to play our nature-assigned role in the great drama of life; to participate, be it ever so modest a scale, in the orderly unfolding of the cosmos. Unknowingly, if a tree; instinctively, if an animal; with full awareness, if man... to be of open mind and free of prejudice, feeling, though human, related to the animals and plants, a cog in the machinery of the universe, a humble yet vital part, privileged to wield immense power, yet honor-bound to respect the rights of other living things. And above all, to treasure the gift of life."

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