In the five-element tradition explored in this series, ether represents space: the openness in which the other elements arise and pass away. Here, I use it as a way to explore curiosity and what happens when we stop filling every available space.
That makes it hard to write about, and it also makes it the element most of us are avoiding. Ether represents the void, the emptiness we all run into at moments. And we mostly have one strategy for the void: fill it. More activity, more plans, more work. Some of us meet it right after a big push, when the thing we were chasing is done and the quiet underneath it is still there. The void doesn't fill through more activity. It fills through quiet and retreat. For many of us, practice is the place we go to empty out instead.
Curiosity and the space to notice
Ether is also the element of the mind. Thoughts and emotions ride on it. In the Yoga Sutras this shows up as chit: noticing what is. Looking, listening, feeling, without stories, dramas, or interpretation. Just noticing. When we can know something without immediately deciding what it means, we come to know it as it is.
Which is why the ether element runs on curiosity. Curiosity is open, available, full of wonder. It doesn't assume, and it doesn't need to make anything happen. Watch a three-year-old. They walk around amazed at what's in front of them. They never stop and decide they've got it all figured out.
Most of us start practice that way. Then we begin to think we know it. We have the posture pegged, labeled, understood, and we start interacting with the practice from history instead of from what's here. Then we're bored. Nothing happened to the practice. We stopped being curious. When was the last time something you've done a thousand times tore you open a little? That's where curiosity lives, and assuming we know is how we lose it.
Two ways to get acquainted with ether
Next time you're in a crowded space, spend a few minutes moving through it while trying to avoid everyone. Notice what that's like. Then spend a few minutes stepping into the empty spaces instead. Most of us spend our lives defensively managing whatever comes at us. Stepping into the space is a different life, in miniature.
And in practice, put your attention on the spaces: between the inhale and the exhale, in the body after you come out of a posture, between your hands and the floor, behind you and in front of you. Notice what placing attention on space does to the practice. Notice what opens.
Try this: Exploring space through the body
Try the exercise above with your attention on the space around you. Notice the distance between your hands and the floor, or the space behind your back. As you breathe normally, notice any natural pause between breaths without trying to lengthen it.
What happens as you pay attention this way? Perhaps your shoulders soften. Perhaps you feel restless, or immediately want something to happen. There may be no obvious change. Curiosity includes that too.
In this exercise, ether is the five-element tradition’s way of directing attention toward space. You do not need to produce a particular sensation to explore it.
If the quiet brings up flatness or numbness, notice how that feels in the body. Give it a little attention without forcing a different feeling. And if you begin checking whether you are present enough or doing the exercise correctly, notice that demand as well. The pressure to perform can enter practice through the wish to get it right.
To spend a little more time settling your attention, listen to Steadying the mind with the breath. About 15 minutes, guided in my voice.
I explore the pressure to prove ourselves in The Performance Trap. You can listen to the opening chapter in my voice.